For the second day in a row, a driver in Greater Victoria will see hundreds of dollars go up in flames after being caught tossing a cigarette out of their vehicle.
The driver in Friday’s case flicked the lit cigarette out of their window and onto a grass median when Victoria’s police Chief happened to be parked right beside them.
The driver, who was in the 2200-block of Quadra Street, was ticketed $575 under the Wildfire Act for dropping, releasing or mishandling a burning substance.
The ticket comes after a driver met the same fate on Thursday in Saanich after they threw a cigarette butt out their window at the Trans Canada Highway and McKenzie Avenue intersection.
It also comes as the south Island’s wildfire risk level was still considered extreme as of Friday and as blazes continue to burn across B.C.
Police Chief Del Manak wrote on social media that the driver’s explanation was they have no ashtray in their car and they were planning on getting out of the vehicle to put out the lit smoke after they got off the phone.
READ: Saanich police fine driver $575 for tossing cigarette amid extreme conditions