Fires Fry Nerves Of Trailer Park Residents

By Michelle Cyr-Whiting

Brad Hall, John Carriere, and Patti Hinter fear the start of 'fire' season

Prince George, B.C. -  Yesterday afternoon's suspicious fires merely signal the start of summer at the Lombardy Trailer Park...

That according to three long-time residents at the mobile home park, which sits at the eastern end of the VLA neighbourhood.  But the sentiment shared by Brad Hall, his partner, Patti Hinter, and John Carriere isn't meant to downplay their fear that deliberate fires set in the green space behind their homes won't one day result in catastrophe.

Hinter could see the flames from one of the blazes just behind her home, "Oh yah, I saw them, I could hear the crackling, it was just over my fence."

"It's a regular occurrence -- welcome to summer -- it happens every year here," she says.

"We've tried to get that (the green space) cleared out, so that the kids can't play back there in the trees where nobody can see what they're doing.  And every year the brush gets thicker and drier and nobody seems to know who's responsibility it is to clear that out." (Photo at left shows firefighters returning from the grassfire.  Hinter's mobile home is on the left.)

Brad Hall says he feels there's support within the fire department to clear out some of the brush behind the trailer park through a controlled burn, but he says he's had no luck nailing down a commitment from City Hall.  "The two fellows I talked to last summer (at Fire Rescue) said they would be onboard to do that because they're here, I'd say, four or five times a summer and the fires are getting closer and closer."

Hall says it's his understanding that the green space immediately behind their back fence is owned by the trailer park, but it blends into the bird sanctuary surrounding the Hudson's Bay slough.  He says management at the park is on-side with a controlled burn, but says, the stumbling block lies with the City.   "As far as what I've been told (during phone calls he's placed to City Hall), it is with the direct City because they don't want fires burning near the sanctuary."

Like her husband, Hinter is growing extremely frustrated.  She says she understands the need for conservation areas, but, " You can't tell me that all that dead brush is a good thing for anybody -- Mother Nature could start it when nobody is up to see the flames start and we could all be dead."

John Carriere has lived in the park for 15-years.  He once saw a trailer burn to the ground and says it went up in flames in less than five minutes, so there's a real concern lives could be lost.  Carriere says, "It seems like the City doesn't care, maybe they'd be happy if the place burned to the ground."

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