Much of Nova Scotia is under a fire ban, so why not provincial parks?

A property owner who lives near Five Islands Provincial Park is concerned the province is still allowing campers to light fires in provincial parks, even though most of mainland Nova Scotia is under a fire ban due to the risk of wildfire.

Glen Marsh told CBC's Information Morning his own home near Parrsboro could go up in flames if a spark from a campfire in the neighbouring park ignited a blaze.

"It's definitely not safe for them to have fires in the park," he said.

"The woodland in around the park area is — for lack of a better word — run down. There's a lot of dead wood in there, dead debris, it's not kept cleaned up very well, and it's basically kindling. The lightest little spark or anything could get in there and probably set off a fire." 

On Wednesday, all of mainland Nova Scotia south of Pictou and Guysborough counties was listed as a no burn zone by the province, due to the risk of wildfire.

Legislation prevents a ban

Jim Rudderham, operations manager for forest protection for the province, said the Forests Act does not allow him to ban fires in provincial parks, "but we assess the level of risk and we put guidelines in place to try to make things better."

He said staff take a number of steps each year to ensure fire safety in the parks, including annual inspections to make sure fire pits meet structure and location guidelines.

There's also firefighting equipment in parks and staff on site during the day, when the risk of a forest fire is greatest, Rudderham said.

Concerned about fire pits

Marsh said he's worried the fire pits in Five Islands Provincial Park weren't built to contain sparks. "They're just homemade fire pits. There's nothing to stop flames from coming out of the top of them," he said. 

"We was over there the other night and there's actually a couple of places that all they have is truck rims there," Marsh said. "I don't believe a truck ring is a certified burning apparatus."

Rudderham said the fire pits in provincial parks don't have spark screens, but they generally do have grills on top. He said he's never heard of a camp fire in a provincial park starting a wildfire.

Fort McMurray top of mind

"We have hundreds of wildfires every year but we've not had an issue of one of our campfires from our parks — and I'm knocking on wood — starting a fire, but that's a fact," Rudderham said. "Every year we get lots of fires and none of them started from a campfire in a park."

Marsh said he's still worried.

"I think it's a great risk," he said. "It doesn't take a lot. We just have to look at Fort McMurray — what happened out there."

• Nova Scotia forest fire risk remains high, thus no-burn order remains

Information Morning - NS6:04People who live near Five Islands Provincial Park say it's just a matter of time before a campfire sparks a forest fire in the community

Some people who live near Five Islands Provincial Park on the Bay of Fundy say campfires in the park are creating a forest fire risk. There is fire ban in effect throughout mainland Nova Scotia. But Provincial Parks are exempt from that ban. Glen Marsh