Dear Editor,
While our province is experiencing unprecedented wildfires, and the Richmond News, too, had a front page story on cigarette butts causing fires in Richmond, it was very disheartening to see that the Celebration of Light went on uninterrupted, with all those incendiary fireworks going on at English Bay.
It looked like a rather contemptuous mockery of what was going on in the rest of B.C.
While many may say that it happens in English Bay with water all around (on a barge and all that), I can assure you that the VFD must have been on pins and needles lest one of those fireballs go awry and land on a patch of dry grass causing a fire in or around Stanley Park or nearby Point Grey, etc. We’re literally playing with fire, in a fire-prone area.
I know some may say, it is the City of Vancouver’s jurisdiction, but we are right there too and should a fire have been caused, Richmond resources would have been surely called for.
I do not suggest cancelling the show, but at least defer it until the B.C. wildfire situation gets better than the extreme level we are currently at, in respect for those whose livelihoods have simply evaporated overnight due to the same element of fire these guys are celebrating.
Rommel R. Coelho (M.Tech)
Richmond
