2014 Fire Season is Shaping Up to Be Worse Than 2003

The wildfire season in British Columbia is shaping up to be one of the worst in recent history as more than 172,000 hectares of land has already burned this year.

Red Deer Fire in Northern BC (Photo Credit: BC Wildfire Branch)

According to the BC Wildfire Management Branch the Prince George region has seen the most devastation as more than 113,000 hectares has burned up so far in 2014. So far this fire season the total number of hectares burned is 10 times that of 2013, which saw a total of 18,259 hectares burned. The average season sees 1908 fires and 141,092 hectares burned, costing a total of $170.4 million.

Seaton Lake Fire on July 12th, 2014 (Photo Credit: BC Wildfire Branch)

Data shows that 2010 was the worst fire season in the past decade with 337,149 hectares burned costing the province more than $212 million. 2003 comes in next with a total of 265,053 hectares of land catching fire costing $371.2 million, most of that in Kelowna on Okanagan Mountain.

So far in 2014, 650 wildfires have been reported throughout the province, compare that to last year’s 1,857 fires and 2011 when only 653 fires were reported for the entire season. If this trend continues BC could be in for the worst fire season in at least a decade. The current fire season is from April 1^st, 2014 to March 31^st, 2015. Over the past 10 years an average of 38.6 per cent of fires have been caused by people and 61.4 per cent by lightning.

Smith Creek Fire at night in West Kelowna (Photo Credit: Shawn Talbot)

There are currently 15 wildfires of note burning in province but this week’s weather is expected to drop significantly and rain is in the forecast for many regions including the central interior.

An online petition has been circulating asking the province to bring back the Martin Mar Water Bomber and has more than 19,000 signatures on it. The petition is expected to be delivered to Premier Christy Clark on Thursday at her constituency office in West Kelowna.

The province has since released a “factsheet” about the Martin Mars and BC’s airtanker fleet explaining why the province has not contracted out the mega bomber.