‘The support has been absolutely amazing’: Thousands donated to North Peace Minor Baseball league after shed fire

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. — North Peace Minor Baseball league president says he is grateful to Fort St. John for providing enough funds to replace the equipment lost in the recent shed fire. 

After a shed fire over the weekend, Scott MacLean said he woke up on the morning of Sunday, April 27th to learn all of the league’s equipment was destroyed.

That included umpire gear, pitching machines, chalk machines, maintenance equipment and diamond bases. 

After sharing the news of the league’s loss on Facebook that day, MacLean said he quickly gained support from the Fort St. John community. 

“The support has been absolutely amazing, I posted on Facebook and maybe an hour after I noticed it gained a tonne of traction and we just had an outpouring of support from individuals and local businesses,” said MacLean. 

The league president said the loss will only cause “minimal delays” in the upcoming baseball season.

“With that quick, quick reaction, we have every replacement on order, and we’re hoping to get everything in the next few days,” said MacLean. 

MacLean believes the fire was arson because the structure contained no flammable materials and there were no traces of a grass fire leading to it. 

The league encouraged anyone with information about the incident to contact the RCMP.

“[We’re] just going to make do with what we have and with some temporary kind of bases, practices will resume,” said MacLean.

MacLean said it quickly received over $8,000 in donations from various organizations and many more small donations from individuals. 

According to MacLean, $5,000 was received from the NorthRiver Midstream and Jiffy Lube, while United Rentals and Rig Ratz Safety also donated $1,000 each. 

“We had countless individuals and other people that were wanting to donate small amounts too,” said MacLean.

He is also looking to replace the destroyed equipment shed, but must wait for approval by the City of Fort St. John. 

“Those four companies that donated is going to be pretty close to replacement costs for the equipment,” said MacLean.

“It was wonderful just to see how the community came together, we’re fortunate to have a community like this,” MacLean concluded. 

The league’s first game will be at Kin Park on May 7th, with Peace Vale facing off against Rig Ratz Safety.

The Fort St. John RCMP told Energeticcity.ca it has received a report about the shed fire incident but would not provide any more information at this time.