After a couple of quiet years, the 2021 wildfire season in the Cariboo was another challenging one.
The BC Wildfire Service has released a summary that shows that there were 305 wildfires between April 1st, 2021 and March 28th, 2022.
That was up from just 48 in 2020 and 51 in 2019.
129,537 hectares were burned, which was also up significantly from just 57 and 189 hectares the previous two years.
Of course, last year’s numbers pale in comparison to 2017, which was the worst wildfire season in BC’s history.
That was the year that both Williams Lake and 100 Mile House were evacuated, and the plateau wildfire, which was about 60 kilometres west of Quesnel and 60 kilometres northwest, became the largest fire in the province’s history at more than 545 thousand hectares.
Getting back to the 2021 wildfire season, most the wildfires of note were located in the South Cariboo region. (South of Canim Lake, Succour Lake, Flat Lake, Young Lake, and in Churn Creek Protected Area)
Province-wide, 60 percent of the wildfires were natural caused, 35 percent were human caused and 5 percent were undetermined.
2021 PROVINCIAL TOTALS
| Fire Centre | Number of Wildfires | Hectares Burned |
|---|---|---|
| Cariboo Fire Centre | 270 | 129,537 |
| Coastal Fire Centre | 216 | 7,100 |
| Kamloops Fire Centre | 459 | 497,497 |
| Northwest Fire Centre | 58 | 28,645 |
| Prince George Fire Centre | 274 | 128,881 |
| Southeast Fire Centre | 367 | 77,615 |
| Total | 1,642 | 869,279 |