Royal City residents have used rubber boots and garbage cans in their firefighting efforts in recent weeks.
The recent stretch of warm, dry weather has left local grassy areas dry and ripe for accidental fires.
Moody Park residents rallied together to extinguish a grass fire ignited by firecrackers near the 10th Street side of the park on the evening of Aug. 15.
"People were carrying water across the street," said area resident Natalie Lawy. "A lifeguard came over from the pool with an extinguisher. It was a community effort."
"One inventive thing people did was fill the empty garbage bins (it was collection day) with water to carry it across the street," Lawy wrote in an email to The Record.
The fire left a blackened patch of grass between Nanaimo Street and Seventh Avenue.
"Apparently our guys showed up to somebody putting out a fire," said Brent Joel, a fire inspector with New Westminster Fire and Rescue Services. "Our guys came out and dumped more water on it."
New Westminster firefighters and residents extinguished a trio of grass-type fires in the city on Monday, Aug. 20. A New Westminster woman called the fire department after noticing a small smouldering fire near Centennial Lodge in Queen's Park about 6 a.m.
Fire crews extinguished some smouldering bark mulch located at the base of a tree.
Later that day, motorists traveling along Sixth Avenue toward the Queensborough Bridge spotted a grass fire on the lower part of Grimston Park about 5: 30 p.m.
One man used a rubber boot to try and stomp out the fire, while others told him it was too risky.
Later in the day, New Westminster Fire and Rescue Services was called about a possible fire at the Victoria Hill site at about 10 p.m.
"A small area of burning bark mulch was found using the thermal imaging camera," Joel said about the camera that detects heat.
Joel said these types of fires are common in the summer, after grass and bark mulch dries out during a stretch of hot dry weather, and are often caused by discarded cigarettes.
"The weather is hot," Joel said. "People need to be aware that the smallest spark is going to start a fire."
