With temperatures expected to hit the high 20s late this week, and no rain since June 18, fire danger ratings are creeping up and the BC Wildfire Service has announced a campfire and open burning ban effective at noon Thursday, July 6.
As of July 5, the danger rating was high for much of the Sunshine Coast, with the exception of areas near Georgia Strait between Sechelt and Gibsons where it remains at moderate.
Fire information officer Donna MacPherson said with the weather pattern holding, a campfire ban has been under consideration since the long weekend.
“We’re going to have a series of days that are progressively warmer, and we are seeing the fire danger ratings climbing as the forest dries out,” she said.
MacPherson said there haven’t been any wildfires on the Sunshine Coast this season, but all 40 of the fires reported elsewhere in the Coastal zone have been human caused.
The largest of those is a fire that flared up Canada Day near Harrison Hot Springs. It now covers 115 hectares and is about five per cent contained.
“That fire did grow fairly quickly and the fire behaviour was pretty aggressive for a while. That’s indicative that the forest is drying.”
The Coastal Fire Centre regulations apply on Crown land and areas like provincial parks. Some municipalities and local fire departments may set different rules, although most on the Sunshine Coast follows the province’s lead. In Gibsons, for example, campfires and beach fires are banned year round along with all other outdoor burning.
A ban on Category 2 open burning has been in place since early June. Category 2 fires are larger fires (two metres high by three metres wide) for burning garden waste or other material, as well as fires in burning barrels or cages. The ban also includes: fireworks, fire crackers, sky lanterns, and binary exploding targets, a type of shooting target designed to create smoke and debris when hit.
The campfire and open burning ban announced this week also includes a continuation of the ban on activities under Category 2.
MacPherson said people need to think about how they act while they’re in the forest. “We’re seeing an awful lot of people who are treating the forest like it’s some sort of backdrop for their party. It’s not. We need people to start being respectful of the fact they’re in a forest, a forest that [can] burn… being careful with fire, being careful of what they’re doing, so that we have a place we can go back to.”
