So much for that roaring camp fire you thought about doing with your friends.
Starting at noon today (July 6) all open fires (including campfires) are prohibited throughout the Coastal Fire Centre’s jurisdiction, including Lower Mainland, Vancouver Island, Sea-to-Sky region and the Sunshine Coast.
The Centre is implementing this prohibition is largely due to increasing temperatures and no precipitation in the weather forecast. This prohibition will remain in effect until Oct. 21, 2017 or until the public is otherwise notified.
The ban excludes Haida Gwaii and the area known as the Fog Zone, a two-kilometre strip of land along the outer coast of Vancouver Island, stretching from Owen Point (near Port Renfrew) north to the tip of the Island and around to the Port Hardy District boundary. A map of the Fog Zone is available online.
Some human-caused wildfires have already ravaged several acres of forest on the Island and Interior including the more recent Mount Manuel Quimper fire near Sooke.
In the Interior, firefighters have been fighting a monstrous 115-acre wildfire in Harrison Hot Springs.
The following activities are prohibited within the specified area:
• Campfires
• Category 2 open fires
• Category 3 open fires
• Fires burning woody debris in outdoor stoves
• The use of tiki torches, fireworks, firecrackers, sky lanterns, burning barrels or burning cages of any size or description
• The use of binary exploding targets (e.g. for rifle target practice)
A poster explaining the different categories of open burning is available online at gov.bc.ca/openfireregs.
The prohibition does not apply however, to CSA-rated or ULC-rated cooking stoves that use gas, propane or briquettes, or to a portable campfire apparatus that uses briquettes, liquid or gaseous fuel, so long as the height of the flame is less than 15 centimetres.
Anyone found in contravention of an open burning prohibition could get a violation ticket for $1,150, required to pay an administrative penalty of $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.
To report a wildfire or open burning violation, call 1 800 663-5555 (toll-free) or *5555 on a cellphone. For the latest information on current wildfire activity, burning restrictions, road closures and air quality advisories, go to bcwildfire.ca.
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