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While there were a number of fires in 2008, the fire season was relatively quiet for the B.C Forest Service. The season began slowly, thanks to cool spring temperatures. Once a few warming trends swept through the Province through July, things were looking ripe for fire activity: long periods of little precipitation, hot temperatures, predicted dry lightning; however, the fires that were reported posed relatively few problems due to the quick response by air and ground crews, and high pressure ridges were quickly replaced with low troughs.
The Kamloops and Southeast regions saw the most activity with 1115 of the 1975 fires that burned since April 1st. Although a few blazes came close to communities and structures there were no evacuations or alerts.
In 2008, the total number of fires recorded across the province was more than the 10-year average (1975 compared with 1805), while the number of hectares burned was below average (12,743 compared with 78,643). The cost of direct fire fighting for the season was $76.2 million, which is well below the 10-year average of $108 million.
During the fire season, Ministry of Forests and Range Wildfire Management Branch resources were deployed out of province under cost-recovery agreements to assist with fire activity in California, and Alberta. When a warming and drying trend hit the province in mid-July and the risk for fire starts increased the province requested assistance from other provinces: 18 fire fighters, one area representative, and 14 aircraft from the Yukon; two fire behaviour specialists (including one trainer) and four aircraft from Alberta; and one fire behaviour specialist from Ontario.
2008 Notable Fires
- 350-hectare Edgewood fire, 1.5kms south of Edgewood.
- 330-hectare Fort Steele fire, Lakit Mountain, north for Fort Steele.
- 130-hectare Jackass Mountain fire, 20kms south of Lytton, closed both lanes of traffic on the Transcanada Highway 1.
- 30-hectare Dallas fire, Del Oro, 13kms south of Kamloops, at its most threatening point, came within metres of residences and industrial buildings. Both fire department and Forest Service crews worked extremely hard in the high temperatures to prevent the fire from spreading into the subdivision.
- 170-hectare Perry Creek fire, 10kms south of Kimberly, 12 kms northwest of Cranbrook.
Number of Fires
- By Cause:
- 802 caused by people
- 1,173 caused by lightning
- By Fire Centre:
- Coastal: 297
- Northwest: 47
- Prince George: 307
- Kamloops: 605
- Southeast: 510
- Cariboo: 209
- Total: 1,975 Fires
Related Information
- Fire Averages - average fires, hectares and cost for the past 10 years
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