Campfire ban comes into effect in B.C. amid heightened fire risk
Hundreds of properties remain on evacuation alert in central and northern B.C. as dry, warm weather persists
A campfire ban spanning almost all of British Columbia comes into effect Friday, as officials warn the province is heading into a potentially severe wildfire season.
The ban will start at noon in an attempt to try to reduce wildfire risk. The sole exception to the ban is in the Haida Gwaii Forest District.
"We are forecasting and anticipating the potential for a drastically accelerated situation here," said Emergency Management Minister Bowinn Ma at a news conference Thursday.
There are currently 150 wildfires actively burning in the province, following a week of extreme heat and lightning strikes.
Jean Strong with the B.C. Wildfire Service (BCWS) said the risk for more fire starts remains high, even with slightly cooler temperatures on the way.
"As anyone in the southern half of the province will see, we're still hot. It's cooled off, but it's cooled off from 40 C to 33 C," she said in an interview.
Hundreds of properties on alert
An evacuation order issued Wednesday is still in effect for the northeast corner of the District of Wells in the Cariboo region. Wells Mayor Ed Coleman said the order covers a small mine site of about 10 employees, as well as backcountry recreation lakes.
Other parts of Wells are under evacuation alert, covering around 350 properties, while more than 300 additional rural properties south of Dawson Creek, B.C., are also under an alert due to the threat of wildfire.
An evacuation alert means residents must be ready to leave at a moment's notice.
An evacuation order issued Tuesday by the Fort Nelson First Nation for its remote Kahntah reserve is also still in place.
Meanwhile, the wildfire service no longer lists a fire in the Terrace area and another near the Yukon boundary as wildfires of note, referring to blazes that are either highly visible or pose a threat to public safety or infrastructure.
Nova Scotia sends crews to B.C.
Twenty Nova Scotia firefighters and an agency representative from that province's natural resources and renewables department are flying to B.C. on Friday to help fight out-of-control wildfires in the region around Prince George, according to the Nova Scotia government.
This comes as the B.C. government said it's looking for outside firefighting help, specifically 180 firefighters, specialists and bucketing aircraft, to help aid the full complement of 2,000 BCWS firefighters. About 500 B.C. firefighters have been deployed so far, the province said.
"By being proactive in our request for additional resources, we can ensure that lag that it often takes for additional resources to come in from out-of-province doesn't impact our ability to protect communities," Ma said.
So far, this wildfire season is less severe than last year's record-setting season, according to federal officials. But just shy of 13,000 square kilometres have burned across the country, which is close to the 10-year average for this time of year.
Deryck Trehearne, director general at the Government Operations Centre for Public Safety Canada, said at a technical briefing Friday that the country is now in the "heart of our fire season," with the areas of greatest risk including B.C. and the Northwest Territories.
Trehearne said B.C. has not yet asked the federal government for help, noting that provinces are actively supporting each other at this point.
"They were prepared earlier and they are responding aggressively to fires that are threatening communities and infrastructure," he said.
International assistance has not yet been needed to manage the fire situation in Canada, Trehearne said, but lines of communication between the United States and other countries remain open.
"As we all know, the situation can change very quickly," he said.
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With files from The Canadian Press