Just before noon on July 30, under a relentless summer sun and parched skies, Ashcroft Fire Rescue and partner crews, along with local ranchers, raced to a brush fire about four miles south of Ashcroft, British Columbia.
The blaze burned hot and fast in tinder-dry grass along Highway 1, threatening nearby power lines and farmland. But as crews arrived, it quickly became clear this was no ordinary ignition. It wasn’t a discarded cigarette or a spark from farm machinery that had set the grass ablaze, but a fish, dropped mid-flight by an osprey onto a power line.
As of July, roughly one-third of British Columbia, about 344,000 square kilometers (133,000 square miles), is experiencing drought conditions, while another 38 percent, or nearly 379,000 square kilometers (146,000 square miles), including areas around Ashcroft, is considered abnormally dry.
The Village of Ashcroft, which calls itself “an oasis in Canada’s only true desert,” has a population of 1,670 and is currently under Stage I water restrictions. The water restriction bylaw is expected to run until the end of September and limits when residents can water their lawns and gardens.
Firefighters used roughly 4,800 gallons of water to put out a fire that burned just over an acre of land. An investigation of the area revealed the fire had been caused by a fish.
“The fish had an incredible journey, considering the river is 3 kilometers east from the point of origin,” Ashcroft Fire Rescue said in a Facebook post.
Apparently, an osprey carrying a fish over a hydro line lost its catch, possibly due to heat exhaustion or the fish’s size. The falling fish hit the line, causing a shower of sparks to drift to the dry grass below.
Ospreys are skilled hunters commonly found across British Columbia from mid-March to September. These raptors eat mainly fish, diving feet-first into rivers and lakes to catch a meal. Known for carrying their catch in their talons as they fly, ospreys sometimes lose their grip on dinner, especially when weighed down by larger fish or fatigued by hot weather.
“There is something fishy about this call, and we definitely suspect fowl play!” the post read. “We do suspect by the size of the fish and the heat of the day probably caused the rather tired bird to drop its catch. Or another suspicion could be that it’s tired of raw fish and wanted to give cooked a try. We may never know the answer, but it has been verified that our prime suspect sustained no injuries in the incident and is still flying at large.”
On August 1, the department updated the post to say, “The suspect osprey has been caught and is being held in custody for questioning. The judge has not granted bail as the suspect poses an extreme flight risk!”
