First fire ban of the season
Photo: Contributed
With warmer weather on the horizon, the first fire ban in British Columbia was implemented in the north.
As of noon on Friday, the Northwest Fire Center will be banned from lighting open fires of categories 2 and 3.
BC Wildfire Service says they are introducing the ban “due to current and forecasted weather conditions” in parts of the region.
Campfires are still allowed in the area. Camp lights are defined by BCWS as not more than 0.5 meters high and wide.
The Northwest Fire Center remains the only fire center in the province with any fire restrictions, but the Okanagan Similkamin Regional District is also limiting open fires in the Anarchist, Christmas, Naramata, Okanagan Falls and Willowbrook fire protection zones starting at midnight tonight.
Last year, restrictions on open burning were imposed at the Kamloops Fire Center – which covers the entire Thompson-Okanagan – in early June, while a ban on campfires across the province was introduced on June 30th.
The 2021 fire season turned out to be one of the worst the region has seen, with forest fires burning a record 496,983 hectares of land at the Kamloops Fire Center.
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