BC Mounties say they have made arrests in a pair of “disheartening” thefts of firefighting equipment in British Columbia..Kamloops RCMP recovered more than $10,000 worth of gear after responding to reports of a theft-in-progress early Tuesday, including a medical kit and an AED — an automated external defibrillator — used to treat cardiac arrest.. Mounties/RCMPMounties have busted a teen for stolen firefighting equipment. .Also recovered from two parked vehicles were a pellet rifle and a bag containing firefighting equipment. Police said it responded to a similar incident at the same location on Monday..One youth, who was known to police and can’t be named under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, was arrested on scene and charged with possession of stolen property while two male suspects fled on foot..The youth was subsequently released pending the outcome of the investigation, which included the assistance of the Kamloops RCMP Forensic Identification Unit..“The items stolen were directly related to local wildfire response,” said Jeff Pelley, the Kamloops RCMP detachment’s officer in charge. .“It is extremely disheartening to see these crimes occurring and potentially hampering the efforts of those who are trying to protect life and property in extremely dangerous and volatile environments.”.Similar reports of missing or moved gear have been reported in nearby North Shuswap where crews are fighting the Bush Creek East wildfire that has forced hundreds of people from their homes..Some residents have reportedly defied evacuation orders, sparking angry confrontations with firefighters as well regional and provincial emergency responders..At a fire briefing on Wednesday, Emergency Management Minister Bowinn Ma warned that holdouts threaten public safety and hinder firefighting efforts..“When unauthorized people are in evacuation areas it escalates the dangers for everyone. It also limits the type of wildfire fighting tactics that the BC Wildfire Service can deploy," said Ma.."It redirects critical resources away from the wildfire fight itself into searching for moved equipment, redoing work that’s already been done to set up structural protection, or just trying to manage an unpredictable situation made even more unpredictable by well-meaning but uncoordinated firefighting efforts.".“We have to be working on this together… people can’t be doing their own thing. We can’t have equipment that’s been staged for firefighters being moved so it’s not there when it’s needed. That puts the whole unified strategy at risk.”
