Barrie fire crews had a busy Friday night, responding to three separate fires over the course of six hours.
The first call, confirmed Deputy Chief Carrie Clark, came in around 4 p.m. for a fire at a homeless encampment between a construction site and The Source, located in the area near 278 Bayview Dr.
“There was a 10-by-10 encampment area that burned. In that zone was a propane tank, which vented off and … let go or experienced an explosion,” she said. “It’s always a concern when we go to encampment fires.”
The property where the fire occurred, she noted, included a small green space adjacent to what appeared to be the beginning of a construction site.
“Nobody was around and we don’t know whose stuff it was. We are just working on finding property ownership,” she said.
At 7:45 p.m, crews received a call of a second encampment fire at Milligan’s Pond.
“That was about 15 by 15 feet. There’s a lot of combustibles in that area and no one was in the vicinity of the fire or identified as it being their area,” she said. “Crews quickly had it extinguished and under control and made sure it wasn't going to spread.
“There are some areas (crews) are familiar with for going there so much. This entry point, for us, was off of Vespra Street. We had one crew go in from the north side of the pond and they got a visual on (the fire) and directed the crews to go to the south side so that we could access off of Vespra Street.”
The third call, she said, initially came in as grass fire behind the Cineplex Theatre on Commerce Park Drive at approximately 10 p.m., however upon arrival, crews found several wooden pallets on fire.
“It wasn’t an encampment fire,” she said. “It was just a bunch of burning skids.”
Due to where the fire was located crews were unable to use the hose from the fire truck, so instead utilized what she called Wildland backpack extinguishers.
“It’s literally a backpack with water that has a little nozzle and hose on the end.”
Officials are unable to determine either the damage value or the cause and origin of any of the fires, she acknowledged.
“There’s a lot of open flame usage in the area, so whether there was a campfire, a candle, we can’t determine what the first thing was.”
“If you look at the climate we’ve had for the last few weeks it’s been very wet and cool. If you are living unsheltered, it’s hard to keep your stuff dry and keep your fuel dry if you’re having a cooking fire,” she said. “All of those things can add up to people doing things to try to get a fire going or keep a fire going … to try and stay warm and dry their stuff out. We don’t want to assume how these fires are starting.”
No injuries occurred at any of the fires, confirmed Clark.
