A doused and dampened dumpster fire that broke out Wednesday morning in Revelstoke's Industrial Park can serve as a reminder of what people should avoid throwing out with their garbage.
Four Revelstoke Fire Rescue Services (RFRS) vehicles responded to the fire along Powerhouse Road at about 8:30 a.m. Jan. 29. A tower of grey smoke billowed out from the green dumpster, but its placement in the middle of a largely-empty parking lot and away from nearby buildings made it an ideal scenario with no structural threats, according to Fire Chief Steven DeRousie.
"We're unable to determine a precise cause," he said. "It's hard to determine when it's trash. The original source could've burned away."
The fire could just have easily been caused by a passerby's litter as by a resident of that block, DeRousie explained. In any case, cigarettes and other smoking material, decomposing oily rags, and lithium-ion batteries are all suspects for waste bin burns.
"Nine-volt batteries from smoke alarms are notorious," he said, noting they should be disposed of at appropriate recycling facilities. "We tell people to change their batteries often, so they're not dead" when thrown out.
The dumpster's location in the open parking lot avoided a much more challenging, higher-risk fire to manage, DeRousie said.
"Very ideal placement," he remarked. "Keep them away from any structures that could cause a fire."
RFRS gets called to four or five dumpster fires per year, its service data shows. The previous one happened at Columbia Park last November.
