The BC Wildfire Service is extending a category 2 and 3 open fire prohibition.
It was set to expire today (Oct 1), but will now be in place through Saturday, October 15th.
The prohibition covers not only the Cariboo Fire Centre’s jurisdiction but also thew Tsilhqot’in Declared Title Area.
The decision was made jointly by the CRD and the Tsilhqot’in (Xeni Gwet’in) and it being done to help prevent human-caused wildfires and to protect public safety due to continued unseasonably warm and dry conditions.
The prohibition does not apply to campfires that are a half-metre high by a half-metre wide.
Cooking stoves that use gas, propane or briquettes are also still permitted.
A Category 2 fire is an open fire that burns material in one to two piles, each no larger than two metres in height and three metres in width, or burning grass over an area of less than 0.2 hectares.
A category 3 fire is defined as an open fire larger than two metres by three metres, burning three of more piles smaller than two by three metres, or burning an area of grass over an area greater than 0.2 hectares.
Anyone found in contravention of an open burning prohibition may be issued a ticket for $1,150, required to pay an administrative penalty of up to $10,000 or, if convicted in court, fined up to $100,000 and/or sentenced to one year in jail.
If the contravention causes or contributes to a wildfire, the person responsible may be ordered to pay all firefighting and associated costs, as well as the value of resources damaged or destroyed by the wildfire.
The Cariboo Fire Centre stretches from Loon Lake near Clinton in the south to the Cottonwood River near Quesnel in the north, and from Tweedsmuir Provincial Park in the west to Wells Gray Provincial Park in the east.
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