Man’s fine reduced to $500,000 for starting wildfire near Cache Creek, B.C.

CACHE CREEK, B.C. – A man from Cache Creek, B.C., has been ordered to pay $500,000 for starting a wildfire in 2012.

Brian Parke was originally fined more than $900,000 two years ago after being found responsible for a wildfire that scorched 140 hectares of land and took almost four months for crews to extinguish.

The fine was appealed and reduced last month after Parke’s lawyers and the provincial government settled out of court through the Forest Appeal Commission.

The original fine order says Parke had started a burn pile on his property that smouldered for more than a month before sparking and spreading to Crown land.

Les Husband, the BC Wildfire Service’s deputy director, issued the original fine for Parke.

Husband says the figure covered costs for crews, equipment, helicopters and tankers. (CHNL)