Undetermined problems with a BC Hydro tower caused a wildfire that spread to approximately one hectare of forest north of Murrin Park and east of Highway 99 early Sunday morning (Aug. 9).
BC Hydro spokesperson Dag Sharman said today fire personnel pointed to lightning as the reason the transformer caught fire. But provincial wildfire management information officer Mike McCulley said an assessment is still underway to determine exactly why a transformer caught fire last weekend, causing sparks to shower down to the dry brush underneath. He said lightning charts indicate no activity in the area for the past two weeks.
"It is a really weird one - usually they're really cut and dry. It's either a person or it's lightning," said McCulley.
Squamish Fire Rescue chief Ray Saurette said whatever the cause, first responders noticed the problems immediately.
"The top part of the pole was burning and we're not sure why. It was dropping sparks, wood embers, into the material right underneath the hydro poles."
Just after 12:30 a.m. Sunday morning, emergency workers received a call of downed power lines near the Petgill Lake trail. RCMP and Squamish Fire Rescue attended with two trucks and 16 members, but no downed power lines were spotted.
"It came in as lines down, which started forest fire, and when they determined there were no power lines down, they were looking at a transformer issue," said RCMP Cpl. Dave Ritchie.
RCMP assessed safety concerns since campers were near the area.
"They were worried about campers initially, but they determined that it wouldn't go up the kilometre to where they were," said Ritchie.
Fire Rescue quickly turned the incident over to provincial crews trained to battle forest fires, said Saurette.
"We did an assessment with them during that first two hours that we were there as to what the game plan would be," he said.
No immediate action was taken since the darkness and topography caused safety issues. However by 6 a.m., wildfire management had 20 firefighters on the ground and helicopters dumping buckets of water at the scene.
"They deserve all the accolades for getting the resources on the ground," said Saurette.
There was a brief interruption of traffic while helicopters approached the area, said Ritchie, but otherwise very little disruption. Power to the surrounding community was also uninterrupted since an automatic power diverting mechanism kicked in, said Sharman.
Forestry crews were withdrawn by 8 p.m. Sunday, and the fire was called 100 per cent contained.
"There were a couple of smoldering spots, but everybody was comfortable that it could stay in that state overnight because it had a fire [water] guard around it," said Saurette.
A skeleton crew remains on the scene today to mop up and look for hot spots.
