Structures and lives saved after efforts of firefighters to control serious Vancouver Peninsula bushfire

A dramatic blaze in Vancouver Peninsula that threatened lives and buildings on Monday burnt more than 40ha before being brought under control as parts of the area remains closed because of ongoing safety concerns. The Department of Fire and Emergency Services said they received multiple triple-0 calls at 1.49pm on Monday reporting a fire near the access to Whalers Cove Beach. The fire forced 16 people to be evacuated from nearby Camp Quaranup, under an emergency level warning. City of Albany incident controller Rob Lynn said that they are working with police to investigate the cause of the fire. The blaze is now being treated as suspicious by police. “We’re still investigating and we haven’t determined that we know the point of origin, but we have some witnesses that told us very clearly where the fire started,” he said. The efforts to contain the blaze was led by two waterbombers, one communications aircraft, 45 firefighters, and 23 fire trucks. He said the fire was “burning very hot” and was “fast-moving”, estimating it to be moving at 1km an hour, a speed he said was quite fast for fire. “It was a fast-moving fire we estimate it was moving at least 1km out and that’s quite fast in fire-moving terms, it was burning very hot as well,” Mr Lynn said. “We worked very closely with career and volunteer fire and rescue to take care of the assets as the fire escaped and started to burn towards the camp and were helped by also transporting people out of the area.” The blaze was contained but not controlled by Monday midnight as firefighters patrolled the area overnight to ensure no new fires ignited. The fire was first reported near the access to Whalers Cove Beach and the area was placed under a watch and act warning before it was quickly escalated to an emergency level warning. “We had aerial support from the start helping us from the start helping us slow the fires down, that was partially successful,” Mr Lynn said. “It was quite spectacular from the city (Monday night).” Firefighting crews used back-burning in an attempt to control the blaze and save Camp Quaranup, which remains undamaged. At one point during the effort to combat the blaze a person was flying a drone over the area. “There weren’t any water-bombing aircraft up there at that particular stage but I can’t stress how dangerous that is for us as firefighters,” Mr Lynn said. Mr Lynn said the City of Albany is working closely with Aboriginal elders to assess any damage to cultural sites and the walking trail will remain closed while the threat remains. Quaranup Road north of Mistaken Island and the access to Whalers Cove Beach has reopened while the Point Possession walking trail remains closed. Albany Police say they are working with DFES to determine the cause of the blaze with authorities saying they will use public information provided to them as well.