Fish causes fire in British Columbia

Ashcroft Fire in south central British Columbia posted this story about a grass fire:

Do you wonder why the power was out in Ashcroft today? There is something fishy about this call and we definitely suspect fowl play!

 
Shortly before noon hour, Ashcroft Fire was dispatched to a landscape fire burning 6km south of town. 

The fire was located just off the east side of highway 1. When the crew arrived on scene it was noted that an employee with Dawson Road Maintenance, BC Hydro employees and Ashcroft Ranch hands were actively fighting the fire. 

With the heavy fire being knocked down, Ashcroft fire was able to cool the perimeter and the burned area with Engine 3 and Tender 4. Ashcroft Ranch's Tender was also on scene. 

With all units combined, roughly 4800 gallons of water was put down into an area roughly 60x90 meters. It’s safe to say that this area has been significantly cooled. All of us are very thankful that wind was not a factor in today’s incident.

A quick investigation revealed the cause of this fire. 

It was determined to be a fish, yes, you read that right, the fish had an incredible journey, considering the river is 3km east from the point of origin. The fish had been dropped by a local osprey onto the hydro line causing embers to drop, along with the fish, to the dry grasses below. 

The fish caused the fire

We do suspect by the size of the fish and the heat of the day probably caused the rather tired bird to drop its catch. 

Or another suspicion could be that it’s tired of raw fish and wanted to give cooked a try. 

We may never know the answer, but it has been verified that our prime suspect sustained no injuries in the incident and is still flying at large.

🚒

Now we know we probably ruffled up some feathers with some of you on this write up. It should be noted that osprey are not fowl, they are birds of prey. But it made for good clickbait, didn’t it! 🤓

Update: August 1 2025 4pm The suspect osprey has been caught and is beeing held in custody for questioning. 

The judge has not granted bail as the suspect poses an extreme….flight risk! 😁 

That is all from us here at Ashcroft fire, We wish you all a very safe and fantastic long weekend!

Photo credit: Deputy Chief Greg Hiltz, Captain Hayden Aie, and Captain Noel Talarico.