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Fire crews responded to a landscape fire burning six kilometres south of the small town of Ashcroft. There, they found the cause of the fire was a fish.
Investigators found a fish in the burned dry grasses of the field after the burned area had cleared, according to Ashcroft Fire Rescue. The fish originated from a river three kilometres east from the fire, and officials believe a local osprey dropped the fish onto a power line, causing embers to drop onto the dry grasses below.
“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,” fire officials said in a social media post.
“Or another suspicion could be that it’s tired of raw fish and wanted to give ‘cooked fish’ 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.”
The fish-caused fire didn’t cause any damage, only burning just over an acre of land. When crews arrived on scene, numerous individuals were already fighting the fire. Ashcroft Fire Rescue was eventually able to cool the perimeter and burned area with an engine and tender. Roughly 4,800 gallons of water were used to cool the fire down, and crews were thankful high winds were not a factor.
“The suspect osprey has been caught and is being held in custody for questioning,” fire officials said in their tongue-in-cheek Facebook post. “The judge has not granted bail as the suspect poses an extreme flight risk!”
This is not the first time Wildfire Today and others have noted the involvement of a bird, and many other animals, in the starting of a wildfire. At times intentional, and sometimes accidental. A search on the term “animal arson” (use the quotation marks) in the above Search will deliver several tales of critter pyromaniacs over many years.
(Wildfire Today)
