Mounties Reveal Cause of Valleyview Wildfire
Tuesday, April 19, 2016 @ 9:31 AM
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Prince George, B.C. – The Prince George RCMP say the fire in Valleyview yesterday which forced the evacuation of 40 homes was accidentally caused by two young boys with matches.
“Investigation found that two young boys aged 12 and 9 were attempting to light a ‘camp fire’ when the fire quickly got out of control,” says Corporal Craig Douglass. “Charges are not likely.”
No homes were lost in the blaze and Douglass says property damage was limited to a shed and a partially damaged patio at a home on View Place.
There was also significant damage to vegetation and landscaping around the residences in the area.
Fire crews remain on scene today and the public is requested to avoid the area.
Comments
Goes to show just how fast an innocent endeavor can turn into a major disaster.
Things are pretty dry in the bush, and getting dryer especially with this wind.
Yes, the fire season has gotten off to a roaring start, with this early warm and dry weather. We must all be vigilant and careful in the bush.
metalman.
Maybe I will upset some with this comment, but why no charges? What if homes were destroyed or lives lost, which could’ve occurred ? Is 9+12 too young to know to not play with matches? I don’t think so. Could or should the parents be charged? Damages did happen, so who is on the hook for those?
The 9 year old can’t be charged. He can shoot someone in the head, and can’t be charged under the young offenders act – brought into existence by Pierre Trudeau as a kinder and gentler way of dealing with badly behaved children. The 12 year old can be charged, but the penalty would likely be loss of Xbox privileges for a week – hardly worth the court’s time. Besides, it’s just kids being stupid kids. I can handle this a little better than some dumbass tossing a cigarette out of their car.
Now, if you ask about civil law, that’s a different matter. Mom and Dad might be on the hook for all the damages. Each insurance company will pay any claims, and then look to see who they can recover funds from.
I would hope that the boys who started the fire would have received a stern lecture from someone in authority, such as a fire officer, or rcmp officer. Not to mention some form of punishment from their parents.
But formal charges? No. They apparently did not act in malice, they unwisely lit a fire where it was not safe to do so.
It was a learning experience, not a criminal act.
Just my opinion.
metalman.
metalman, I agree with your comment about a learning experience! My immediate thought after reading the cause was that there is an opportunity here that should be seized.
Each and every school in our district should gather their students into the auditorium/gymnasium. Pictures of the burned areas should be shown, along with the close proximity to homes. Perhaps a fireman should be there as well. A discussion should be held with the students, not a lecture per se but a discussion about the danger of fire and the responsibility to be safe with fire!
We now have young children telling their parents that smoking is bad for you. They tell their parents to wear their seatbelts. Let’s be sure to educate our children about the dangers of fire and perhaps they will also chastise Mommy and Daddy for throwing butts out the window!
I second the motion, Hart Guy, but let’s have them do that right at the scene, directly after the fire has been extinguished, to see the damage and potential loss, up close and personal.
metalman.
they shouldn’t be seeing mommy and daddy throwing butts out the window because mommy and daddy should not be smoking in the car with them……
Lectures? Xbox gone for a week? Holy cow, that would mar them for life, can’t have that.
Hart guys got it, take the students for a nature walk through the burned out area.
Parental guidance is a thing of the past, in some cases.
So glad this fire didn’t get any further, our emergency responders did a great job, especially with those winds. Coulda been a lot worse.
Charge the parents. I always get a charge out of that. So Vikingnuck do you have kids? Do you know what they are doing 24/7? Some parents are negligent yes, but a lot have no control no matter what they do.
driving to work this morning and a guy passes me tossing his still smoking cig out the window, is it worth reporting this person? will something be done? my word against his……I’ve always wondered.
I know somw1 that had there house run into, lots of damage done by a new driver, ICBC went after them and got the money back to the tune of 30.000 dollars.
I suspect that once this fire got out of control those kids got an immediate lesson on what happens when you play with fire. There is no point in trying to make criminals out of them. I think we can safely say that this was not done on purpose, and therefore we should be thankful that no one was hurt, and little property damaged.
When you look at all the problems in the Prince George area, I would say that our kids cause less problems than our adults.
Kids do things that they shouldn’t, I know that I did. Something like this may not warrant any charges by the law (until someone’s home burns down..or worse), but a healthy a**whooping is exactly what I and many others could have expected from our parents.
So here is what is going wrong with society:
-Cant spank your kids for nearly burning down a neighbourhood.
-Cant even hold kids responsible for their actions. Hell, you cant hold adults responsible for their actions, there is always some excuse to shirk the thought of responsibility.
-Cant speak your mind without first making sure you’re being politically correct, dont want to go hurting anybody’s feelings.
Do you really wonder why people are able to commit crimes like beating/raping seniors, or shooting people for no apparent cause?
It is because our society allows no blame or punishment to be assesed at an early age and it spirals out of control until these people realize that nothing holds dire consequences for them!
So, someone who knows these kids (be it their parents, family or a brave neighbour) take these boys… no, drag their sorry butts back to the scene of the fire and proceed to dole out a life-reaffirming lickin. Its all about life lessons. I remember the one’s that I got, and it made me a better person… Thanks Dad!
I am not a big fan of physically abusing children. I have never lifted my hand to my child and now I have a well adjusted teen who is principal’s list smart and hangs out with a good group of kids.
“Spanking erodes developmental growth in children and decreases a child’s IQ, a recent Canadian study shows.”
www .psychologytoday.com/blog/the-me-in-we/201202/how-spanking-harms-the-brain
Only in some Gall, not all.
I had 3 good, well deserved whoopings growing up.
1 for lying.
1 for swearing at/ disrespecting my Mom.
1 for stealing.
They may have been traumatic at the time (for both me and my father) but they were life changing lessons that needed to be dealt with.
I am sorry JGalt, but a well deserved whooping is NOT CHILD ABUSE! It is “forcive corrective action”. And before you go giving that statement any rebuttal, I must say this:
The difference between “forcive corrective action” and Child abuse is essentially this statement that my Dad made before giving me mine: ” Son, this hurts me as much as it hurts you,…someday you’ll understand”
It’s the line of thinking like yours that has hamstrung our society into believing that all can be cured with a “time out” and calm talking in a reassuring tone.
I have raised 4 well rounded, smart, respectful and socially responsible kids to adulthood. Not one has ended up in jail, all were honour roll students. Every one of them got spanked at one point or another. I am certain it hurt me more than them. But they will remember that it happened for good reason.
Thats the problem these days, some people seem to lump and spank on the ass in with “child abuse”, no doubt these same people would think complementing a woman on her looks would constitute “sexual harassment”. Times are not getting better socially when the social norm is to make sure you can’t interpret things on your own but rather society has to tell you what things mean.
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