Category Archives: Forest Fires

On April 1 of this month, the Western Canada SFI Implementation Committee and the Tree Frog News launched the second annual Wildfire Resilience and Awareness Week. If you missed it, we’re happy to share a recap of the articles we featured. Thanks to all who participated! 

Working to improve the accuracy of fuel typing in Canada
By Kate Bezooyen, MSc (Candidate), FIT; Gregory Greene, PhD; John Davies, RPF
Forsite Consultants Ltd.

Helping Students Understand the Nature of Fire
Project Learning Tree Canada

Coastal Fire Centre prevention plan under development for 2024 wildfire season
By Rebecca Grogan, Communications Assistant
Coastal Fire Centre

Private Land Burning – A Message to Landowners and the Province
By Bruce Blackwell M.Sc. RPF RPBio.
B.A. Blackwell and Associates Ltd.

A Look Into Fire Mitigation Best Practices And Research In BC
By Heidi Walsh, RPF
DRS Phoenix Connect

New centre at UBC to advance wildfire research, collaboration and innovation
By Lori Daniels, Koerner Chair in Wildfire Coexistence
UBC Faculty of Forestry

Police and firefighters are going door-to-door telling people who live in the vicinity of a wildfire burning out of control near Chetwynd they need to evacuate. In a social media post Wednesday evening, the BC Wildfire Service says local RCMP and the Chetwynd Fire Department are doing a “tactical evacuation” near the fire, which was discovered around 3:45 p.m. In just a few hours, the fire has grown to 40 hectares in size, according to the agency. A 10-kilometre stretch of Highway 97 has also been shut down in both directions due to the wildfire. Drive BC says the closures start four kilometres away from Chetwynd—a town in B.C.’s northeast roughly 300 kilometres north of Prince George—and end 14 kilometres away.

CARIBOO, B.C. — Susanne Langan first noticed the Burgess Creek wildfire from her home in British Columbia’s Cariboo region on Saturday afternoon as a distant, thin column of smoke. But as winds picked up that night, the flames became more aggressive. “I could see lots of trees going up like Roman candles,” said Langan, who works as an equipment operator at Mount Polley Mine, about 50 kilometres north of Williams Lake. …In addition to the 1,600-hectare Burgess Creek fire about 600 kilometres north of Vancouver, the tiny town of Endako, a further 400 kilometres northwest, is also under an evacuation alert, threatened by a blaze that the BC Wildfire Service said on Sunday was less than a kilometre west of the town. …an evacuation alert for Endako was issued Sunday after 60 km/h winds began pushing the flames toward the community of a few dozen homes that sit on the north side of Highway 16.

Some residents of Cold Lake-area First Nations have been told they need to evacuate the area immediately as flames approach, while people living in a hamlet near Fort McMurray have had the evacuation alert for their community cancelled. An emergency alert was issued just before 5 p.m. for First Nation of Cold Lake #149 (Legoff) due to a wildfire nearby. Residents have been told to go to the community hall and to look for updates on social media. The alert states the wildfire is burning in the area between Range Road 430 and Range Road 434. Meanwhile, near Slave Lake, a wildfire fire in the area of Canyon Creek triggered a temporary closure of Highway 2 on Sunday afternoon. For several hours, sections of the highway near the fire were experiencing poor visibility due to the smoke. The highway has since reopened.

The 2024 fire season got off to an explosive start in the Cariboo Fire Centre on April 20 with multiple fires breaking out around the region. Challenged by dry, windy conditions, the BC Wildfire Service responded to several wildfires, including the largest and most visible fire, the Burgess Creek wildfire, located between Williams Lake and Quesnel. …the Burgess Creek wildfire was discovered at approximately 3 p.m. on Saturday, and grew to 50 hectares by evening. In the Sunday morning update, the fire is now estimated to be 1,600 hectares. …The Burgess Creek wildfire remains out of control, and has prompted a continued full response from the BCWS on site including crews, air support and heavy equipment. Smoke from the fire is highly visible… There are no structures in the area of the fire, which has been classified as suspected to be human caused. …the fire appears to be location within several logging blocks.

Fire season is underway. Southern Vancouver Island’s had its first officially reported wildfire on April 5 — though the small human-caused spot fire near Shawnigan Lake was quickly dealt with. “We had dispatched a response officer who attended and determined that our crews were not required, as the fire was quickly brought under control by people on site who had remained on site until the fire was extinguished,” said Rebecca Grogan, a fire information officer for BC Wildfire Service. The fire grew to about two metres by five metres before it was put out, Grogan added. It was about 1.5 kilometres east of Shawnigan Lake in the Strathcona Heights area, which put it in the Shawnigan Lake Fire Department’s jurisdiction. BC Wildfire had responded before they had accurate coordinates for the fire.

With the 2024 wildfire season heavily looming over the backs of Canadians after last year’s historic wildfire season, none will be feeling the pressure more than Western Canada. Widespread drought, low snow-pack levels, and warm temperatures have many people fearing for what this season will bring. Alberta’s wildfire season typically runs from March 1 to Oct. 31, but on Feb. 20, Alberta’s forestry minister declared an early start to the season, allowing for the province to expand their wildland firefighter numbers and proactively prepare for what’s to come. Now, over a full month into the wildfire season, Alberta is battling 57 active wildfires, 50 of which are fires still burning deep in the ground from 2023.

CHETWYND — The BC Wildfire Service is busy battling a 5.2 hectare blaze south of Chetwynd. The fire was discovered on March 31 and is now classified as out-of-control. An out-of-control wildfire is a wildfire that is continuing to spread and is not responding to suppression efforts. The blaze is approximately 7 kilometres from the Sukunka River Forest Service Road in the Dawson Creek Fire Zone. BC Wildfire Service is responding to the wildfire with seven firefighters, a water tender, and a dozer. An official cause has not been released. There are currently 100 active wildfires burning across British Columbia.

The Okanagan Forest Task Force was formed in 2016 with the goal of cleaning up the Okanagan’s backcountry. Since the group’s formation, millions of pounds of illegally dumped garbage have been cleaned up by the task force. Founder Kane Blake says the volunteers do more than just collect garbage. On Friday, Blake shared alarming statistics of how many abandoned fires the team put out during May to October of 2023. “We put out roughly 300 abandoned fires between Kelowna and Lake Country. They just get left unattended or they are done for the night and feel it’s just okay to leave,” Blake said. He says roughly 30 to 40 of the fires were put out during strict fire bans. “Five of the fires had already started to catch brush and/or trees in the area on fire,” Blake added. The volunteer group saved one life during a vehicle fire which the team put out.

CHETWYND, B.C. — The wildfire that sparked near Chetwynd on February 23rd is now listed as “being held” by the BC Wildfire Service (BCWS). Located 15 kilometres on the Hasler Creek Forest Service Road, the wildfire is now being held at eight hectares. According to the BCWS, the fire remained out of control until Monday morning, when it was re-classified. …The BCWS says weather conditions such as precipitation and low temperatures like the region has experienced recently reduce fire behaviour and facilitate suppression.

Wildfires that went dormant over the winter have once again moved above ground, producing visible smoke and smouldering, the B.C. Wildfire Service says. The service says these “holdover fires” are primarily in the Prince George Fire Centre, which covers the northeastern quadrant of the province, and are being aided by ongoing drought conditions in the region. “A holdover fire is a fire that remains dormant and/or undetected for a considerable time after it starts,” the service said in a bulletin, adding they are particularly common for lightning-caused fires or fires of “considerable size.” It is not uncommon for holdover wildfires to be reported, though in past years notices about their reappearance generally come later in the year, around March or April.