The Province gave an update yesterday (Tuesday) on the current wildfire situation.
Director of Provincial Operations for BC Wildfire Service, Cliff Chapman, said compared to 2023, BC is still quite a few fires below where it was last year roughly 500 fires, and slightly above the ten year average.
In the Province right now there are 340 fires burning relative to last year, that is just slightly below the total from this same time in 2023.
Chapman said there are 8 wildfires of note and last year there were 12.
He also included this forecast for the next few days.
“We have seen just under ten thousand lightning strikes in the last seven days predominately in the Kamloops and South East Fire Centres. As we went through July, a very hot and dry month for BC, those lightning strikes had the ability and the fuel was very susceptible to starting new fires. We continue to pick up 12 to 24 fires a day and we expect that to continue for the next two or three days predominately in the Kamloops and South East Fire Centre’s, but also potential in all six of our Fire Centre’s across the Province.”
Chapman said the forecast for the next seven days is a return to temperatures 25 to 30 degrees instead of 35 to 40 which great to us from a response perspective.
“But still doesn’t give that weather that we need to really knockdown the hazard and knockdown the risk of new fire starts. We’re still in a period where its going to be warm and dry. We’re going to see a little bit of wind influence every day as well as the potential for more lightning as we move through the next 36 to 48 hours.”
Chapman noted they have over 1600 people in BC fighting fires, over 200 aircraft flying in the province right now, and over 120 pieces of heavy equipment, a significant effort to respond to these fires.
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