The assistant chief of the Pouch Cove Fire Department says there is a lesson to be learned after a brush fire broke out on the East Coast Trail near Pouch Cove over the weekend.

The fire broke out around 10:00 Friday night after some hikers had begun cooking food on the trail about 1.5 km from Pouch Cove. It burned into Saturday morning.

It took some time for the Pouch Cove Fire Department to find the blaze which, by then, was within about 250 metres from houses according to Assistant Chief Todd LeGrow. They maneuvered the hoses in and knocked down the fire.

The Department of Forestry had rated the Avalon Peninsula as a High Hazard area for forest fires, and Legrow says there is a good lesson to be learned. He says when trying to cook their meal, the hikers ran into an issue with their stove, which ended up igniting the fire. LeGrow says it doesn’t have to be a big campfire to set off a forest fire.

He says the situation could’ve been worse.

LeGrow says thankfully, the wind was blowing off the land. Had it been blowing back toward the community, it could’ve been much worse.