Kamloops firefighters are urging people to Fire Smart their homes after a trailer caught fire in the Brocklehurst area on Friday.

The cause for the fire has not yet been determined, but firefighters believe it started in the cedar bushes.

Life Safety Educator Lyle Weninger says that particular fire could have been a lot worse.

“We talk about firesmarting a lot in wildfire events, but we don’t talk about it a lot just from things,” he said. “Like cigarettes could start those cedar bushes on fire and different other heat sources. Taking those cedar bushes up against the home are always quite a dangerous situation.”

He pointed out that having cedar bushes and other vegetation close to your house can be dangerous.

“People are definitely getting more aware of the hazards in the situation during the past couple of years. So we are getting more calls all the time, people are requesting information,” Weninger said.

“It does happen more in the wildfire season when it’s more on people’s minds, but yeah, we’re definitely getting more calls all the time for that type of stuff.”

Weninger says he’s noticed more people asking KFR for information about Fire Smart so they can better protect their homes from these fires especially after the last two wildfire seasons.

“Lots of times people think because they are in a subdivision that they are not at risk from a wildfire and things like this but the homes are close together and then there are cedar bushes between the homes and they are really close, so lots of times that can easily light up the house from the radiant heat if the cedar bushes are on fire.”

Kamloops firefighters went door to door to roughly 400 homes in the Heffley Creek, Pineview Valley, and the Westsyde areas rolling out the FireSmart program this year.

Weninger adds the door to door campaign has wrapped up for the year.