Halloween night means high alert for P.E.I. fire officials

P.E.I. firefighters will be on high alert tonight with Halloween falling on a Saturday, says the province's fire marshal.

The biggest concern is people setting things on fire as part of a prank or a malicious act, says David Rossiter.

He says these kinds of fires not only damage property, but put people's lives at risk.

"Our major concern is always the fact that if we get a firefighter injured, it is basically over a stupid act," said Rossiter.

"And second of all, it is tying up resources that if another emergency happens to come in, that there could be a delayed response. And we urge those youngsters or some of them not so young to take a sober second thought that an act such as that could follow them around for the rest of their lives"

Rossiter notes anyone caught setting a fire faces criminal charges.

Fire officials say there has been an overall downward trend in the number of Halloween fires on P.E.I. over the past number of years, and they hope that trend will continue this Halloween.

However, despite this trend, there were 20 calls for nuisance and structure fires last year between Oct. 31 and Nov. 1.