Forest Practice Board says Planned Ignition 2023 Wildfire in Gun Lake was Found to be ‘Reasonable’

After an investigation, the Forest Practices Board says the use of planned ignitions during the 2023 Downton Lake Wildfire near Gun Lake was determined to be “reasonable”.

The board released its findings on May 13 into a complaint submitted by three residents of Gun Lake.

The complaint questioned whether the use of planned ignitions was appropriate given the weather conditions at the time. The complainants believed 40 or more homes were destroyed due to the ignition use.

“We [the Board] want to acknowledge the devastating losses experienced by members of the public,” says Keith Atkinson, Chair of the Forest Practices Board. “[The Board] ended up finding that the BC Wildfire Service (BCWS) complied with the Wildfire Act, and its decision to conduct the planned ignition was reasonable given the conditions at the time.”

The complaint raised concerns about the BCWS’s decision-making process for planned ignitions. The complainants also wanted policy changes for how the Wildfire Service conducts them in the future.

Atkinson says BCWS was acting in compliance with sections 9(1) and 18 of the Wildfire Act, and it did analyze the local weather conditions with meteorologists and weather experts.

“We could see the intention of what they [BCWS] were doing, and we [Forest Practices Board]  could see the reasonableness behind the knowledge that they had,” says Atkinson. “Unfortunately, catastrophic fires like this and weather-changing events that were taking place made it something that they couldn’t control the losses of when that happened in the spread of the fire. However, the use of planned ignition that we looked into was all very reasonable, and well done work.”

The Forest Practices Board says going forward, more mitigation work needs to be done so BCWS can be proactive in reducing and understanding local risks in communities across the province. Atkinson says the Forest Practices Board is looking into new ways to use Landscape Fire Management and natural fire resilience to wildfires, in new practices for the impending fire season.