Interesting case. I would agree that if someone started a fire out of negligence (ie unattended fire), then they should be held liable in some way for the damage done, especially given the significant problems we’ve had in Canada the last few years with wildfires, and the likelihood that we will continue to experience these problems.
I guess it really boils down to where the line is for negligence, and it seems like the courts have ruled he should have done more to ensure it was under control and fully extinguished before leaving and not returning to site. To be honest, him not realizing that fires can go underground seems kinda dumb to me, considering he was burning brush from his land. Fire is an enormous danger -if you don’t know how to do large, controlled burns over extended periods of time, consult firefighters first and/or the local government so at least your ass is covered and you can say “I did what the experts told me to do.”
Notable to me in the article was that it sounds like he didn’t even stir the fire to check that it was out, instead just assuming that lack of flames or smoke meant it was out.
There are a lot of places outside of city limits that still engage in burns like this -filling the countryside with smoke - and whatever they say they’re doing there’s plenty of times I’ve gone past and nobody is really watching the fire closely but rather everyone is puttering around doing their regular shit. It’s absolutely careless in the face of the rising danger and number of fires were seeing yearly.
Sucks to the one who gets made into an example, but maybe a few more cases like this will have little thinking twice.
I live out in the country and I do this and I see people doing this … But not during dry times when there’s risk. People pile the brush up but nobody burns anything until there’s been at least a couple days of rain. Most people just wait until the spring. Then you burn a perimeter around the fire, and you really don’t need to stand there watching it.
Good. If he wants to complain, then the government should require proper training for starting these kinds of fires.
Well they have IQ tests, don’t they?
