A Kelowna woman wasn’t going to let it lie.
Sue Lawrence confronted another driver when she saw him flick a lit cigarette butt out his car window on Hollywood Road, at the corner of Springfield Road, at approximately 9:15 a.m. Tuesday.
“I think I was about (the) third or fourth car back. We were stopped, and I saw him toss it out, so we moved up a little bit. I opened my door to look and see what it was, and yes, it was a burning cigarette butt,” said Lawrence.
She said the butt was flicked right by Wayne Road, where many of the houses have cedar hedges and other flammable foliage in their yards.
“I honked my horn a couple of times and I yelled out my window, ‘Pick up your cigarette butt!”
She said the man flipped her the bird. She responded in kind before he drove away, but she didn’t stop there.
“I thought, well, I’m going to write down his plate number and stuff. I’m not going to let this go."
Lawrence posted on a local social media page and contacted the Kelowna RCMP to report the incident. An officer made patrols in the area but wasn’t able to track down the butt-flicker.
Tossing a lit cigarette is especially risky this time of year.
“This summer has been a bit different than others, which can lead to a bit of a false sense of security around the fire risk,” said Dennis Craig, assistant fire chief of mitigation and prevention with the Kelowna Fire Department.
“Although we have had some cooler nights and precipitation off and on throughout the summer, the finer fuels do dry out quickly in the Okanagan heat. What this means is the flasher fuels, like dried grass and litter layers, can be ignited fairly easily after a short period of drying.”
Craig said with hot afternoons like today, a fire could easily start from a spark or ember.
“That ember doesn't have to be dropped in the heat of the day either. It could be from hours earlier, and it will just sit and smoulder until the right breeze/wind hits it. As you know, we often get those late afternoon winds here in the Valley combined with the hottest temps of the day around supper time.”
In B.C., drivers can be fined $575 under the Wildfire Act for carelessly discarding smoking materials.
