BC’s Prince George Fire Center Proactively Under Fire Ban Through October 15th

The Prince George Fire Center, which includes the Robson Valley region, is under a fire ban as of noon on Thursday, March 28th, The Canadian Press reported (3-28-24). Unless the order is rescinded, the ban will continue until noon on Tuesday, October 15th.

The ban applies to Category two and three fires, which do not include campfires. Additionally, the use of fireworks, sky lanterns, burn barrels and burn cages, and binary exploding targets is prohibited under the ban.

Neal McLoughlin, Superintendent of Predictive Services for the BC Wildfire Service, said that due to low snowpack throughout much of the province, BC residents can anticipate an earlier start to lightning-caused fires this year. Parts of BC have already seen human-caused fires, he said, though they have been contained and pose minimal risk of spreading further.

“What [the] BC Wildfire Service is most concerned about [are] holdover fires that are occurring along the edges of last year’s fire perimeters,” he said.

These fires—which were not fully extinguished since igniting last year—may ignite fuel that has previously gone unburned, allowing the fire to spread faster and farther than if it only ignited already-burned fuel, said McLoughlin.

“Our focus will be early detection and early suppression of those holdover fires along the edges of previous perimeters,” he added.