Maple Ridge firefighters rushed to Anita Place Tent City Tuesday morning after a call came in about another fire.
At approximately 9:45 a.m., there was a report of a propane tank on fire inside a tent. But there was no fire, according to a camp resident, only steam coming from inside a tent, where another poured hot water on a chunk of ice.
Maple Ridge Fire and Rescue Service would not comment on the nature of the incident.
Meanwhile, residents of the camp on 223rd Street in downtown Maple Ridge are hunkering down during the current cold spell, spending time in the warming tent before going back to their shacks and tents.
The temperature at Pitt Meadows Regional Airport dropped to -8 C early Tuesday, with the wind chill bringing that temperature down to - 10 C.
The cold is expected to return tonight with a low of -7 C forecast for Pitt Meadows. However, it’s supposed to warm a bit by the end of the week to a high of 1 C on Friday, with a low of -1 C and a chance of snow in the air.
Camp resident Dwayne Martin said Tuesday that the cold has been “unbearable.”
People have heaters in their tents.
“You have to survive. I’m not going to sit here and freeze to death. People do things to survive. It’s human nature.”
He said if people have warm blankets, they stay inside their tents.
“It’s brutal. You’ve got to keep moving. We’re not left with many options here.”
An extreme weather response has been in place in Maple Ridge since Sunday because of the cold weather, said Darrell Pilgrim, executive-director with the Salvation Army Ridge Meadows Ministries.
That’s usually triggered when the wind chill temperature dips to -2 C.
“We’ll probably have it for at least another week, it looks like,” Pilgrim said.
The alert triggered the opening of 25 extreme weather mats at the location of the former temporary emergency shelter in the former mattress shop on Lougheed Highway. That’s been drawing about 10 people a night, in addition to the 60 beds at the Salvation Army across the street.
The opening of the emergency shelter allows the Salvation Army to refer people to the emergency shelter so they don’t have to spend the night outside.
People can also participate in the mat program run by the Hope for Freedom Society, as part of which volunteers put homeless people up in churches for the night.
Rajvir Rao, with B.C. Housing, said an outreach team is connecting with people in tent city daily and encouraging them to move inside and use the extreme weather response spaces available at the Salvation Army and other shelter spaces.
Additional sleeping bags and blankets have also been provided to people at Anita Place.
“Daily meals also continue at the site and the warming tent remains in place and functioning, providing a warm place 24/7,” Rao said.
B.C. Housing funds the costs of providing shelter during extreme weather alerts.
The City of Maple Ridge has been to B. C. Supreme Court, seeking an order to enforce fire safety regulations at the camp.
That was opposed by the Alliance Against Displacement, a group that advocates for low-income housing and the homeless.
The group said in early December that it wants 250 units of tenant-run social housing to be built as one of the conditions for clearing the camp. That’s up from 200 sought last year.
The judge in the case has reserved his decision.
Fire Chief Howard Exner has said there are supposed to be just two propane tanks in the cooking area of the camp, and has warned that their use to run heaters inside of tents could start a “catastrophic fire.”