A camper in the Canadian province of British Columbia was recently issued a $1,150 ticket after he started a campfire despite a ban, allowed the fire to grow out of control, and then fled, Global News reported. Fortunately, the fire was put out by the Fire Department before any extensive damage was done.
A link to the story was posted on the r/britishcolumbia subreddit, whose members were appalled by the camper's actions.
Many of the commenters emphasized that the man should have been fined even more money due to his recklessness and the amount of harm he nearly caused.
"The fine is not enough to deter people," wrote one commenter.
"Yea, these fines are too paltry; in [Nova Scotia] the fine is $25,000," wrote another.
"The fine really should be a sliding scale and go up based on a person's wealth," another commenter suggested.
Campfire bans are put in place when there are "windy or prolonged dry, hot conditions," per the Camping and RVing British Columbia Coalition. That is to say, these bans are not arbitrary. They are issued when conditions could easily lead to wildfires that kill wildlife and destroy forests and people's homes. They should never be ignored.
In recent years, due to the overheating of our planet and changing climates caused by dirty energy usage, wildfires have become more frequent and more difficult to put out than ever before.
In Canada, these wildfires caused an immense amount of air pollution and hurt forest's ability to store carbon. The fires also led to hazardous air quality conditions for many cities in the United States.
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Taking all of this into account, the amount of ire in the subreddit directed toward the fire-starting camper is understandable. Global News reported that the camper was caught after he returned to the scene of the crime to collect his camping gear.
"I used to be the host at a provincial campground and every year we'd get one or two of these [campers]. And there was NO WAY they could plead ignorance because we had signs posted like every 10 feet saying no fires; these were the entitled 'rules don't apply to me' folks so we always dreaded having to confront them about it," another Redditor wrote.
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