Category Archives: Forest Fires

VANCOUVER — Campfires, cigarettes, flares and car accidents are some of the ways humans have likely started more than 400 wildfires in British Columbia this season. As wildfires blaze across the province, the B.C. Wildfire Service says many of them have been avoidable. Despite efforts to spread the word about fire bans and other restrictions, fire information officer Ryan Turcot says many people still aren’t getting the message. “…every human-caused wildfire, is a wildfire that didn’t have to happen,” Turcot said.  “These human-caused wildfires …divert critical resources away from the natural caused wildfires that we can’t prevent.” On average, the Wildfire Service says 40 per cent of fires over the past 10 years, or 666 per year, have been caused by humans. “…it is important for the BC Wildfire Service to continue educating the public about wildfire prevention as it relates to all human activities that can result in unnecessary wildfires,” Turcot said.

The smoke coming from British Columbia’s forests amid a furious wildfire season isn’t just reaching into Alberta. Plumes of smoke from the fires are believed to be travelling as far east as Ontario, the Maritimes and beyond — even across the Atlantic Ocean to Ireland. That’s according to David Lyder, an air emissions engineer with the Alberta government and one of the minds behind FireSmoke.ca, a website whose animated map shows the probable trajectory of wildfire smoke within North America.  …And it isn’t just B.C. that sends smoke so far. “We get smoke from Siberia,” Lyder said.  The map forms one component of the BlueSky Western Canada Wildfire Smoke Forecasting System, a project that first developed in 2007 out of concern about the need for smoke projections to help inform weather forecasters, health authorities and other parties.

Rise Johansen is among many British Columbians who have decided against obeying an evacuation order because of a wildfire, choosing instead to remain behind in Takysie Lake. …They run a store, resort, gas station and restaurant, and have had a steady stream of people coming to them for everything from a cup of coffee to gas for their vehicles. …Rodney Holland, chief administrative officer at nearby Fraser Lake, said evacuation orders are based on personal safety, although adults have the option of defying the orders. …Johansen was also critical of the response to the fires by government agencies. “The boots on the ground are all awesome.” she said. “But the system of how this is being taken care of is immensely flawed. And that’s why so many people have… defied the evacuation order — because we don’t have enough faith in the people making the decisions.”

Three fires burning near Castlegar have each grown to more than 1000 hectares in size. The Syringa Creek Fire burning near Castlegar has now grown to over 1400 hectares. The fire has been getting closer to Syringa Provincial Park and its location is now listed as one kilometre north of the park. …The Deer Creek Fire burning 3 km east of Arrow Lake and approximately 8 km northwest of Deer Park up the lake from the Syringa fire has grown to more than 1000 hectares, but is now listed as 50 per cent contained. …The fire burning in the Bulldog Mountain area, south of Renata is now 1,145 hectares. An Evacuation Order remains in effect for addresses located south of Renata to Shield Point area on Lower Arrow Lake.

The B.C. Wildfire Service said the forest fire situation across the province remained dire Thursday, though a change in the weather is expected this weekend and into next week. Most areas around B.C. have at least a little rain in the forecast for the next few days… Fire information officer Ryan Turcot said the province needs heavy rain for a long time to make a dent in the fire situation …The central-northern corridor between Smithers and Prince George is still the biggest area of concern for the wildfire service given the size and intensity of fires burning there. … Nearly 5,000 people are under evacuation orders with more than 22,000 on evacuation alert across the province. Around 13,000 livestock are under those orders and alerts as well. Dense smoke from the fires continued to prompt air quality alerts across most of B.C., though Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley had begun to clear …Thursday morning.

A wildfire burning near Telegraph Creek in B.C.’s northwest has merged together with three smaller fires to form a single, massive 118,000-hectare blaze. The Alkali Lake wildfire is now B.C.’s largest, followed by the Shovel Lake wildfire which was 87,000 hectares in size on Thursday. While the fire has grown significantly, fire information officer Heather Rice said it still doesn’t hold a candle to some of last year’s behemoth wildfires.  “We had fires in the Cariboo that were almost four times larger than that, sadly,” she said. Crews were working on Thursday to try and slow the fire’s creeping southerly progress towards the community of Glenora, with support from helicopters.

It is becoming obvious that there is something seriously wrong at the Ministry of Forests with regards to the current fire situation. A large part of the problem apparently lies in mismanagement causing delay. Tale after tale of unacceptable delay, “watching the fire” burn until it gets too big to fight. Firefighters not showing up to fight fire until the middle of the day (the worst and most difficult time) because they are stuck in hours of useless and redundant safety meetings… We would be a lot better off if the ministry of forests was yanked, and we let the loggers put the fires out as they used to do with great skill, and local knowledge of winds and effective forest fire fighting techniques. …Instead of tying firefighters’ hands behind their backs, the ministry needs to get out of the way and let them get the job done. 

CALGARY — Parks Canada has issued an evacuation alert for Waterton Lakes National Park due to an “out of control” wildfire. According to the alert, residents and visitors aren’t required to leave the southern Alberta park yet — but should be prepared to “evacuate [their] premises or property should it be found necessary.” …Waterton is located just across the American border from Montana’s Glacier National Park. World-renowned for its scenery and outdoor activities, it was devastated by fire just last year, when a forest fire torched an estimated 38 per cent of the park. …According to the alert, a wildfire that started south of Waterton in the Boundary Creek valley is currently burning out of control.

With the area battling some of the worst wildfires in decades, the Village of Burns Lake wants the provincial government to take more financial responsibility in measures to prevent future wildfires from threatening structures and infrastructure. And it’s doing so through a resolution to be considered next month when delegates from local governments across the province gather at the annual Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM) convention. At issue is a provincial program called the Strategic Wildfire Prevention Initiative which is managed by the UBCM. Through the initiative, local governments can receive money to clear away trees which, if they caught fire, could threaten structures, encourage residents to clean up their properties of fuels, train local personnel, develop efficient communications and emergency plans by local governments and generally make residents more aware of wildfire dangers.

…Dean Neville, an incident commander with the BC Wildfire Service… had just returned from a reconnaissance mission in a chopper. Zeballos is located deep within a narrow inlet, surrounded by bluffs, and those steep inclines were on fire. It’s located in the “fog zone,” a narrow strip of the outer Island that’s normally excluded from campfire bans. Neville told me that it’s unusual for wildfires to flare up in this region. …in Campbell River I met a trucker who hauls logs on the hillsides of the Zeballos area. He was worried about whether he’d have a job to go back to after the fires were out. It’s the kind of economic anxiety that’s becoming more common among people whose lives are affected by extreme weather and disasters like wildfires. Like the people who stand to lose their homes during increasingly intense wildfire seasons, they’re victims of climate chaos.

Some residents south of Burns Lake ordered evacuated because of aggressive wildfires continue to dig in to protect their homes and properties but may not be able to receive desperately needed fuel and supplies. On Monday, a fuel truck organized by the Cheslatta Carrier Nation was prevented from getting on a B.C.-government run ferry across Francois Lake… where several fires have burned hundreds of square kilometres of tinder-dry forest. “They don’t want supplies or fuel to go in — it encourages people to want to stay and fight to the end,” said south side resident Mike Robertson, a policy director for the Cheslatta Carrier Nation …The fuel for the residents is needed to run machinery, including bulldozers, to build fireguards. …The estimated 200 south siders — of a population of about 1,200 — who have stayed behind are not likely to leave. They are extremely independent and have experience fighting fires as ranchers and loggers, he said.

Firefighters are not supposed to cry. They’re strong, tough, and run into deadly situations while others run away. But, when the situation is so overwhelming, so devastating, it’s tough on everyone. It was that way on the evening on Aug. 22, 2003. Media from around the country gathered for an 11 p.m. news conference at Kelowna’s Enterprise Way firehall amid rumours numerous homes had been lost at the height of the Okanagan Mountain Park fire. “Tonight was probably the roughest night in Kelowna firefighting history,” then fire chief Gerry Zimmermann said in a teary, emotional statement. Years later, those emotions were still evident. …Some 15 years later, homes have been rebuilt and lives restored. …saplings have taken root as the forest continues the regeneration process. But, as was evidenced by the Goode’s Creek fire, which started in late July, there is still enough forest to move a fire along, although maybe not to the degree of 2003.

The worst of the wildfire season in B.C. might be hundreds of kilometres from Victoria, but we can smell it, see it and feel it in our lungs. For the second summer in a row, hundreds of fires are burning throughout the province… Much of British Columbia’s matchless scenery can now be seen only through smoke that has made its air quality among the worst in the world. It is only luck that has kept southern Island forests from burning, as so many fires have been human-caused. …We have to look at how we fight fires, how we prevent fires, how we care for those with lung problems and how we design rural communities. We can’t just spray water on this year’s fire and hope that next year will be better. It won’t be, unless we stop warming the planet.

Premier John Horgan says successive B.C. governments have budgeted “laughable” amounts of money to fight wildfires that are becoming all too common through the ravages of climate change. … “We have serious challenges for public health and we need to adapt our policy making, working with all levels of government to make sure that as we go forward we’re better prepared,” said Horgan, flanked by federal Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan, Mayor Lyn Hall and Grand Chief Ed John of the First Nations Summit. …British Columbia budgeted $63-million for wildfire suppression for the 2018-19 season but has already spent $274-million, according to figures from the Forests Ministry. It said last year’s budget allocated the same amount of money, but the firefighting efforts cost $649-million.

Fourteen seasonal properties in the West Chilcotin are the latest to be under an evacuation order due to wildfires. …Coastal Fire Centre information officer Dorthe Jacobsen said the Klinaklini Lake evacuation order comes as the Kleena Kleena Fire and Upper Kleena Kleens River fires are expected to merge. …The BC Wildfire Service is not fighting the fire at this point as it is a “modified response.” “But we are monitoring it very carefully,” Jacobsen said. “What happens with modified response fires is that we talk with local land managers and owners and stakeholders and we figure out triggers. If the fire moves beyond those triggers we start assessing when we do need to take action.”

KAMLOOPS — Wildfire crews in the Kamloops Fire Centre have been busy battling more blazes this year, though those fires have been significantly smaller than last year. Since the season began April 1, Fire Information Officer Shelley Zupp says there have been 389 fires to date in the Kamloops Fire Centre — about double the 192 at this time last year. Interestingly however, the 389 fires this year have burned 38,031 hectares of forest, far less than the 176,460 hectares of forest burned by this point last year. And though there are currently nine fires of note in the Kamloops Fire Centre, she says none are located close to the City of Kamloops. Zupp says one of the busier areas for wildfires has been the Monashee Complex.

When wildfires get as ferocious as the ones ravaging Western Canada right now, firefighters can’t do much more than let them run their course, according to an expert in risk management. “When you see, in the news, these towering columns of black smoke, there’s nothing that can be done except get out of the way,” Al Beaver told The Current’s guest host Ioanna Roumeliotis. “Manage your exposure, get them out of the way of that,” said Beaver… While the smoke poses a health risk for the public, Beaver said it can also stymie suppression efforts, by limiting the tactics that firefighters can use. “Current fire suppression technology is vastly inferior to the extremes of nature,” he said, adding that there are no fire-season-ending events on the near horizon. “They need rain,” he said.

Several homes in Zeballos are under an evacuation order as wildfires continue to burn on the hillsides surrounding the tiny logging village on the Island’s west coast. Meanwhile, a fire continues to threaten the town’s only access road. Residents of six houses in Zeballos “must leave the area immediately,” according to an evacuation order issued by the village at 1:20 p.m. on Saturday. The homes are located on the northern stretches of Maquinna Avenue and Pandora Avenue. …The BC Wildfire service said on its website Saturday that 16 firefighters were focussed on “placing hose lays and sprinklers along the base of the fire” and patrolling for burning debris. Lightning-caused wildfires reached within 300 metres of some homes in Zeballos by Friday, and the fire covered an estimated 90 hectares.

Wildfires continued to burn around Zeballos and its only access road on Monday, but the provincial wildfire authority said the fire directly outside the tiny logging town was “burning away from the village.” “The fire isn’t coming any closer to town, which is great news,” said Lynn Wheeler, an information officer with the BC Wildfire Service. Several homes remained under an evacuation order, and the rest of the town was on an evacuation alert, meaning that residents must be prepared to leave on a moment’s notice. The fire was estimated at 90 hectares in size by Monday afternoon. That suggests that the fire hadn’t grown since Saturday, when the village issued an evacuation order for six homes.

The thick smoke that’s blanketed much of B.C. in recent days has grounded firefighting aircraft and made it difficult to detect new wildfires, officials say. Kyla Fraser, a public information officer with the B.C. Wildfire Service, said that despite a relatively lightning-free weekend with few new fire starts, firefighters continue to be extremely busy battling about 545 wildfires. The smoke that’s choked the sky in many communities isn’t making things any easier for crews. “We have had to ground aircraft in some instances just because visibility was too poor, unsafe to fly,” Fraser told CBC. “Smoky conditions also can pose a problem with detection and discovering new wildfires.” …”It looks like we’re continuing to see some dry conditions right across the province. Most of B.C. is in a high to extreme fire danger rating,” Fraser said.

JASPER, Alta. – Smoke from wildfires that’s blanketing parts of Alberta does more than just irritate the eyes and throats of visitors to the province’s mountain parks — it obscures the spectacular scenery that many have travelled thousands of kilometres to see. …Jasper is designated a dark sky preserve due to its limited light pollution and the planetarium typically has telescopes set up on summer nights. But the universe is obscured by thick haze these days. …The thick smoke from hundreds of wildfires that continue to burn through British Columbia’s forests and brush is also creating air-quality problems for much of Alberta, Saskatchewan and southwestern Manitoba as winds drive it eastward from B.C.

About 100 first responders have temporarily left Alberta’s smoke-filled air behind, moving a province west, where conditions are much worse. Firefighters and RCMP members have been deployed to British Columbia to help local crews deal with hundreds of fires burning across the province.  A total of 47 Alberta firefighters and support staff have been sent to B.C., said Lynn Daina, an information officer for the Fort McMurray forest area. …”Right now, Alberta is quite quiet wildfire-wise,” Daina said. “We don’t have really anything on the go, so our crews are available to go where they’re needed.”

The British Columbia government has declared a provincewide state of emergency in response to the ongoing wildfire situation. Minister of Public Safety Mike Farnworth made the declaration on Wednesday morning. “Public safety is always our first priority and, as wildfire activity is expected to increase, this is a progressive step in our wildfire response to make sure British Columbia has access to any and all resources necessary,” Farnworth said in a statement. The state of emergency is initially in effect for 14 days, once issued, and may be extended or rescinded as necessary. It applies to the whole province and ensures federal, provincial and local resources can be delivered in a co-ordinated response to protect the public.

…Mike Robertson is among the approximately 1,500 “South siders,” as they call themselves, who live in an area about 40 kilometres south of Burns Lake, where wildfires are burning hundreds of square kilometres of tinder-dry forest. Some structures have been burned but Robertson did not know all the details. The wildfires are also threatening other communities in north-central B.C.: Fraser Lake and Fort St. James. …In the area south of Burns Lake, accessible only by ferry across Francois Lake or remote forest service roads, some residents have stayed behind, including logging contractors, to create fire guards, often done by scraping or plowing the ground of any fuel, to create kilometres of fire breaks. …This year’s fire season is now the third worst on record since 1950. More than 1,800 fires have already burned nearly 5,800 square kilometres, 70 per cent of that in northern B.C.

…Wildfires that have destroyed thousands of hectares of trees and filled the sky with thick smoke have put companies in B.C.’s resource and tourism industries on high alert. …”There are areas that are obviously curtailed for harvesting (wood) because of the wildfire conditions,” said B.C. Forests Minister Doug Donaldson during the same call. “At this point we haven’t seen any curtailments as a direct result of the fire, in mills, but if the fire season persists, we likely will see an impact on log supply until we can make it safe to get back into the woods again.” …Vancouver-based Conifex Timber announced on Thursday that it was temporarily shutting down operations at its mill in Fort St. James, B.C., due to an anticipated evacuation order. …West Fraser Timber Co. Ltd. says it will keep its B.C. lumber, pulp and panel manufacturing mills operating as long as it is safe…