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A North Okanagan politician is hoping Lake Country, B.C., will agree to provide fire service to dozens of his constituents whose neighbourhood currently has no fire protection.
After getting a no from the City of Vernon, Regional District of North Okanagan area director Bob Fleming has approached Lake Country about providing fire service to the unprotected area, which sits between Vernon and Lake Country.
“Knowing somebody will come is a big deal,” said Fleming. “Even if there is no event, having that assurance is important.”
The area experienced a house fire last month that left three adults dead. That’s making the push for fire protection more important.
“Up until that event, there hadn’t really been a fire in these areas that affected both people and structures. [The fire] obviously brought it into sharp focus because there were actually fatalities in that fire, which was horrible,” Fleming said.
“This initiative started before that happened but it certainly puts it into focus.”
Last week, the City of Vernon’s council voted against providing fire service because the city doesn’t have the staffing in place.
Fleming is now hoping Lake Country will be open to a fire contract for at least part of the unprotected area as the neighbourhood has no other options.
If Lake Country is willing to offer fire protection to the area, residents will then get a chance to vote on whether they are willing to pay the fee for the service
Meanwhile, more than a month after the fatal house fire on Commonage Road the investigation into the cause of the blaze remains open.
“We are hopeful that we can determine a cause,” said Cst. Chris Terleski, of the Vernon RCMP.
“We don’t have an estimate on the timeline. Obviously, with the damage to the structure, these types of investigations are fairly complex so unfortunately they do take quite some time to sift through the evidence [and] analyze that evidence.”
The cause of the fire is not believed to be criminal in nature. Police said the RCMP is involved in the investigation at the request of the Office of the Fire Commissioner because of where the fire was located.
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