Surrey resident sounds alarm about illegal fireworks after hedge fire<\/p>\n
Published 1:46 pm Tuesday, February 24, 2026<\/p>\n
A Surrey resident is speaking up about fireworks after an early Saturday-morning fire threatened her home.<\/p>\n
Lorna Cherry said people illegally set off fireworks in her Newton neighbourhood, near 82 Avenue and King George Boulevard, after hours all the time, which is likely what woke her up Saturday (Feb. 21) just before 1 a.m.<\/p>\n
\u201dI sat straight up in bed \u2026 then I turned and I looked out (to) my left and that\u2019s where my bathroom window was, and my bathroom was glowing red,\u201d she recalled. \u201cSo I opened up the window and the fire was five feet away from me.\u201d<\/p>\n
The cedar hedge close to her home\u2019s backyard was on fire. Cherry says she started screaming for her son to wake up and get the dogs \u2014 she has three \u2014 into the car, and drove the car to visitor\u2019s parking, away from the flames.<\/p>\n
By the time she got back, her son was spraying the cedar hedge and the shed in the backyard, with trees 20 to 30 feet high by Cherry\u2019s description, and she ran to alert their neighbours to the fire. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe were all in our pyjamas \u2026 my shed is literally a foot or 18 inches away from the trees (on fire). It was terrifying,\u201d Cherry said. \u201cIt was way too close.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cherry said she has called Surrey\u2019s bylaw department to report the ongoing fireworks that are lit, usually between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m., in their Newton neighbourhood on numerous occasions, but that it has never had any real effects or results.<\/p>\n
\u201c(The fireworks) start at 1 a.m., 2 a.m., 3 a.m. in the morning (and) they go for a couple hours \u2026 they\u2019re all over. And I phone the city bylaws and I complain, but they say, \u2018By the time we get there, they\u2019ll be gone anyways.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Surrey Fire Service confirmed four firefighters responded to extinguish a cedar hedge on fire in Cherry\u2019s neighbourhood at approximately 1 a.m. Saturday morning but didn\u2019t have information on the cause of the blaze.<\/p>\n
A subsequent post in a social media group stated \u201cThis is what fireworks do when you light them beside houses,\u201d with a photo of a man with a garden hose, with a tall cedar hedge on fire behind him, sparks and embers flying, with the orange blaze lighting up the night sky.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe almost lost the house, neighbours almost lost their house,\u201d the post said.<\/p>\n
Cherry is fairly certain what caused the fire.<\/p>\n
\u201cI found the fireworks containers in the back of my yard (the next) morning, and my next-door neighbor on the other side, she also found firework casings in her backyard,\u201d Cherry said. \u201cI think there has to be stricter laws regarding fireworks \u2026 I think there be should be stricter punishments (for) people shooting off fireworks. Because it\u2019s not just dangerous \u2014 there are people that live in my complex \u2026 some of these people are confined to a wheelchair,\u201d Cherry said, noting it would be more difficult for those with mobility issues to get out of a burning house quickly.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a wake-up call. Something\u2019s got to be done about it. Stricter regulations, stiffer penalties, jail time \u2014 whatever it takes. This is just becoming totally unacceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n
The City of Surrey allows fireworks only to people who have applied for, and been granted, a permit by Surrey Fire Services\u2019 Fire Prevention Branch.<\/p>\n
Those who set off fireworks illegally face a minimum $400, maximum $50,000 fine under the fireworks bylaw, as well as a $1,000 municipal ticket information fine and a $450 bylaw enforcement notice sign, according to the city\u2019s website.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not just fun and games, it\u2019s people\u2019s lives at stake \u2026 people\u2019s homes are at stake,\u201d Cherry said.<\/p>\n
\u201dI just hope that this doesn\u2019t happen to somebody else, because it could have been a whole lot worse.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Surrey resident sounds alarm about illegal fireworks after hedge fire Published 1:46 pm Tuesday, February 24, 2026 A…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":497249,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194299],"tags":[49,48,87674],"class_list":["post-498408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-surrey","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-surrey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=498408"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498408\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/497249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=498408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=498408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=498408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}