Marijuana grow lamps were to blame for 36 fires in B.C. over the past eight years, according to Fire Chiefs’ Association of B.C. data, and nearly a quarter of those blazes struck homes that had been licensed to grow medical marijuana.

Risk of fire, such as the one that burned a massive medical marijuana operation in Surrey to the ground Monday, is just one of many hazards cited by the federal government in its battle against a temporary injunction granted by Federal Court last week that allows licensed users to keep growing plants in their homes.

“Given that marijuana growing operations require the use of high-powered lights that are not designed for residential home use, and the fact that marijuana plants require 12-18 hours of light a day, it is not surprising that these operations would face an increased risk of fire,” states a Federal Court submission compiled for Health Canada.

Medical marijuana users had sued Ottawa because they are concerned about the cost and quality of bud that is to be grown by commercial manufacturers under the government’s redesigned licensed marijuana scheme.

But according to the federal submission, the old system simply doesn’t work, and a startling high risk of fire is just one reason why.

According to the government, a 2010 RCMP report on medical marijuana grow operations across the country found fires up to 24 times more likely in homes with grow operations than those without.

The growing operations, reads the report, “are being set up with lighting and hydroponic growing equipment, and are being installed without the proper permits or inspections, most often in a residential neighbourhood.”

Those findings are consistent with data from the fire chiefs’ association, which points to faulty wiring, grow lamps and lights as catalysts for the fires.

Surrey RCMP Const. Shane Holmquist was quoted in the federal submission that he had documented in licensed grow operations “obviously unsafe wiring and the presence of ‘CO2 burners,’ which are essentially the equivalent of operating a BBQ inside your home.” He said the devices have been suspended precariously from ceilings and the open flames from the burners had resulted in injuries to growers.

But it is not just small-scale marijuana operations that put growers and neighbours at risk.

Monday’s fire that tore through the Port Kells warehouse, which had housed three medical marijuana licences, was just one of three fires to hit large licensed medical marijuana grow operations in B.C. in the last few months, according to the federal submission.

Police and fire officials are still investigating the cause of the latest fire, which Surrey Fire Chief Len Garis called suspicious. Neighbours of the former mushroom farm told The Sun they had seen the tenants removing equipment from the site in the days leading up to the fire.

Sgt. Dale Carr, a spokesman for the Surrey RCMP, said in an email Tuesday that Mounties would join the fire inspector at the scene to help determine whether the cause of the fire was suspicious. If so, said Carr, police would launch a criminal investigation.