A small fire in the Heritage Forest has sparked concern about the possibility of a major forest fire in the Qualicum Beach urban core.

Fire Chief Chris Jancowski says the fire was noticed by people walking in the park at about 7:30 p.m. on June 28. The fire was small in area, but fierce, with the single blazing tree sending flames 30 feet into the air.

Two engines and two rescue trucks converged on the scene and, after puzzling out the quickest way to snake their hoses to the site of the fire, they quickly extinguished it.

“Once they got the lines into the fire it only took about five or ten minutes,” Jancowski says.

The fire, he says, is not considered an arson.

“It was more an issue of a cigarette butt tossed or possibly children playing with fire,” he says. “We don’t see it as malicious.”

The fire raised alarm bells around the town council table this week, with councillors debating the best way to deal with the threat of a larger blaze in the forest — situated near the town’s urban core.

Councillor Mike Wansink ignited the debate, questioning Heritage Forest commission head Coun. Jack Wilson about what would happen to a proposed covenant on the property in the event of a large fire.

“If there should be a tragic event, say the forest burns down, what could be done to adjust the covenant in that case?” Wansink asked. “There wouldn't be a forest to preserve.”

Wilson’s reply didn’t reassure the councillor.

“Most of the forest is comprised of old growth Douglas fir, and because of the thickness of the bark, can withstand almost any forest fire. If the forest burns down, the covenant would be the least of our worries.”

Wilson argued the occasional small fire in the forest is part of nature and not necessarily a bad thing.

However, he doesn’t think fires should be ignored, and he believes steps should be taken to lessen the risk. Among these is a proposal to clean out some of the fuel load on the forest floor.

“Over the years there has been an agreement to keep it as natural as possible, not to remove dead trees and fallen limbs. However, we may be inadvertently be allowing a fire hazard to accumulate over time.”

Wilson says the commission recommends doing a brush cleanup assessment from a fire hazard standpoint. As well, he moved that staff contact the local fire centre to implement a rural/urban interface program.

Wansink cautioned that consideration of the loss of nutrients in the soil should be included in the assessment.

“In some places, like the Black Forest, they cleaned up all the underbrush and they killed the forest,” he says. “I want to ensure there is enough left.”

“I don’t want to turn this into a heritage park,” agrees Coun. Barry Avis. “It should be treated as a natural forest, which lives off its decaying wood.”

Mayor Teunis Westbroek backed Avis and Wansink and urged chief administrative officer Mark Brown to look into developing a rural/urban interface fire plan.