Wildfires of British Columbia

Forest fires

A wildfire is a fire that burns out of control in a natural area, like a forest, grassland or prairie. Wildfires can begin from natural causes like lightning but are usually are caused by humans like campers who do not put their campfire out properly. Wildland fire is any ignition, natural or planned in wildland areas and use natural fuels. Over 8000 wildland fires happen a year and the size of the spread of fire depends on the landscape, wind and weather patterns. The warmer temperatures of weather, low soil moisture and drought conditions are impacting the size, range and how often the wildfires are. Over 230,000 people were evacuated due to dangers of life and health in 2023, the amount of wildfires have gone up and 2023 and was the worst year to date. British Columbia is the province with the largest wildfires to date, and the increasing wildfires are due to climate change and it is important to support our forest health for the future.

British Columbia has the most wildfires of all provinces in Canada, on average 1,600 per year. In this area of western Canada, currently the most fires are in the Fire Centre of Prince George, they’re 6 regional Fire Centres total in British Columbia. In each region each Fire Centre is responsible for wildfire management, the boundaries are Cariboo, Coastal, Kamloops, Northwest, Prince George, and Southeast. The wildfire activity has increased and occurs between April-September every year and the highest risk area in British Columbia is Kelowna. The distribution pattern is in the Cordillera region. 

The landform region is Western Cordillera, and the Climate region is the Cordilleran and vegetation region is wet coastal forest to dry interior grassland. The indigenous territories in the region are Kootenay, Cariboo, Okanagan, Nechako. Donnie Creek was the largest fire to date in British Columbia 5,344 in size.

British Columbia has long hot summers and drier conditions which make it easy for lightning storms and high winds to start fires and can spread and burn longer. In 2023, 72% of wildfires were triggered by natural causes while the other was from human activity. The government says most wildfires are caused by lightning, and others are caused by humans like campfires, fireworks, ammunition, industrial activity, agriculture, power lines and some arson, warmer temperatures decrease snowpack, low soil moisture and drought conditions are indicators that climate change is affecting the amount, size, and distance of the wildfires.  

The issue with the wildfires in British Columbia is that it affects our environment and causes air pollution. It destroys property, resources, and lives. It can affect our mental health from evacuations and our physical health. Our economy is affected by wildfires with transportation, forestry operations, water supply, communications and costs from cleanup and restoration can be up to $1 billion dollars, political issues would be not having enough resources for equipment to help the firefighters fight the fires and reducing emissions to help prevent wildfires from spreading. Oil and gas companies were responsible for 1/3 of Canada's carbon pollution which increase the risk of wildfires.

British Columbia has wildlife habitat restoration and forest rehabilitation to help restore the affects of wildfires. The government has enforced fire bans and fire reporting online to help prevent the spread and updating the public as the fire is spreads further. The Canadian Forest Fire Danger Rating System is the main source of fire information for all wildland fire management in the country, it helps aid with fire danger and behaviour and the Fighting and Managing Wildfires in Changing Climate program provides funding to wildland firefighters for equipment to help manage the fires. Due to the increase of fires year by year there's more resources to donations and funding to help address the ongoing issue and addressing that climate change plays a large role in the increasing amount of wildfires. In Canada, managing wildfires is a shared responsibility between all provincial and territorial government, and authorities and how to control the fires in their jurisdictions. We all need to work together to help reduce the risks and prevention of wildfires since no organization or government can do it alone. The negative impacts it has on our public safety, property, environment and economy can be reduced by using the FireSmart program which is supported by the community to all do their part to help contribute, with the help of these programs and by the government and community we can help reduce the spread of wildfires for the environment but also for society.