Banned butane torches still being sold in Vancouver — and they're causing fires, crews say

CBC News

· Posted: Jul 04, 2025 3:09 PM EDT | Last Updated: 5 hours ago

One twelvemonth since the City of Vancouver banned the merchantability of lockable butane torches, the devices are inactive being sold and causing fires successful the city. 

According to the Vancouver Fire Rescue Services (VFRS), the fig of fires being started from lockable butane torches, oregon continuous occurrence butane torches, hasn't changed successful the past year. 

"We're seeing connected astir a regular ground that ... the quality to person a pressurized occurrence that's focused astatine a precise precocious somesthesia and locking connected creates a fig of challenges," says Matthew Trudeau, the occurrence department's nationalist accusation officer.

Last week, educators and fire-prevention inspectors with the VFRS's Community Safety Division inspected 168 retail vendors astir the city and recovered that 83 of them continued to merchantability the device.

Assistant Chief Justin Mulcahy says the squad "issued warnings and gathered grounds for aboriginal tract visits." 

The occurrence section besides issued two municipal tickets, each astatine $1,000. 

$7M successful damages, 23 injuries, 1 death

The VFRS said in a connection that they determined the torches started 38 fires successful Vancouver successful 2024, and astatine slightest different 24 fires successful the archetypal fractional of 2025. They accidental much investigation is needed to find however the torches were being utilized astatine the time.

Since January 2024, the torches person also caused about $7 cardinal successful spot damages, injured 23 radical and caused the decease of 1 person, the occurrence section says.

Continuous occurrence oregon lockable butane torches are utilized successful the culinary manufacture arsenic good arsenic successful plumbing, heating and refrigeration trades. They whitethorn besides beryllium utilized for smoking and cause use. 

"Their design, featuring a continuous occurrence without the request for changeless fastener pressure, renders them susceptible to misuse, peculiarly successful situations of impairment specified arsenic cause use," notes a 2023 yearly study by the VFRS.

"Indoor smoking of illicit drugs utilizing lockable lighters is prevalent, with users often inadvertently leaving flames unattended, starring to imaginable ignition of combustible materials."

The occurrence department also reported to the city that from January 2023 to April 2024, a torch whitethorn person been the igniting entity down 3,100 fires, 356 of which occurred successful Single Residency Occupancy (SRO) buildings.

Last year, the metropolis passed a bylaw prohibiting the merchantability of lockable butane lighters and torches crossed Vancouver, opening that June, in what it described arsenic an effort to curb operation fires, superior injuries and deaths. 

However, Trudeau says radical tin inactive acquisition the torches successful neighbouring cities oregon online, and that determination are concerns astir importation arsenic well.

"We don't adjacent cognize wherever they're benignant of coming from. And they're creating a immense hazard present of thing that's conscionable not simply needed."

Trudeau says they've asked the provincial and national governments for assistance with enforcement. 

In a connection to CBC News, the B.C. Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General said the "regulation and information standards for lighters, including lockable models, falls nether the Canada Consumer Product Safety Act (CCPSA) and are truthful wrong national jurisdiction." 

The Canada Border Services Agency, which is liable for the travel of commercialized into the country, and the Department of Justice, which supports Canada's Attorney General, did not respond to CBC by deadline.