By Grant Warkentin
An American boater must pay a $2.3 million fine for starting a wildfire by burning his trash during a fire ban, destroying an ecological reserve near Campbell River in 2018.
The BC Forest Appeals Commission reviewed an appeal from Duffy Damgaard of San Francisco, California, after he protested a fine levied against him under the BC Wildfire Act. In her written judgment published May 22, Panel Chair Daphne Stancil rejected Damgaard’s claim that someone else on his boat might have started the fire, noting that he offered no evidence.
She ruled he remains liable for the $2.35 million fine, levied to cover the cost of the firefighting response, and lost timber.
The fire started on August 24, 2018 in the Pendrell Sound region of East Redonda Island, northeast of Campbell River. Someone from Damgaard’s pleasure boat moored at the Island started a fire on the beach to burn garbage, despite fire prohibitions, and the unattended blaze spread quickly into the trees. It eventually destroyed more than 660 hectares of forest including an ecological reserve.
The initial investigation concluded it was either Damgaard or his passenger who started the fire, because no one else was nearby. Stancil didn’t believe Damgaard’s claim that his passenger might have been responsible, and said his denial convinced her he was the most likely culprit.
“I drew an adverse inference from the appellant’s refusal to provide evidence in this hearing to infer that any evidence under oath he would have provided would have been detrimental to his submission that he did not start the wildfire,” she said. “I found that as the appellant was determined, in the decision under appeal, to have started the wildfire, he bears the burden of proof to show that he did not.”
The fine was initially levied on June 15, 2021. The latest judgment upholds the original fine amount, despite Damgaard’s attempts to have it reduced.
Featured image: The East Redonda Island fire in 2018. Image from BC Wildfire Service
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