The cause of the 61 hectare Mt. Hayes wildfire northwest of Ladysmith remains unknown. (BC Wildfire Service)

By NanaimoNewsNOW Staff

fire stats

Coastal B.C. spared brunt of severe wildfire season, illegal campfires raise concern

Oct 18, 2021 | 5:30 AM

NANAIMO — While the forest fire season regionally was steady, it was far less damaging compared to other areas of the province.

Data from the Coastal Fire Centre showed this year’s forest fire season saw nearly 7,100 hectares of land charred by 209 fires.

That compares with roughly 87,000 hectares of forest burned province-wide, resulting in one of the worst seasons in the province’s history in terms of land burned.

While Vancouver Island was the site of two large blazes, fire information officer Julia Caranci said it could have been much worse.

“That heat dome caused an accelerated drying of the forest and just the way that the weather turned after that parts of Vancouver Island had virtually no rain at all for two and a half months.”

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Despite a quieter than average forest fire season in coastal B.C., Caranci said their crews were challenged physically and mentally with tough assignments elsewhere.

“A number of our crew members took deployments to the interior. Kamloops needed a lot of help this summer, they were definitely the hardest hit fire centre in British Columbia this year.”

Despite a campfire ban in place for most of the summer and volatile conditions, many people evidently ignored the campfire prohibition.

Caranci said it was disappointing to see hundreds of illegal forest fires reported in the Coastal Fire Centre this year.

“We had 689 campfire reports during the prohibition, that was definitely one of our struggles,” she said.

Historically about 40 per cent of forest fires in B.C. are person caused, while the majority are lightning caused.

Caranci said the cause of the Mt. Hayes wildfire near Ladysmith remains under investigation with no known cause at this time.

The 10 year average in the Coastal Fire Centre showed 23,000 hectares of forest are burned annually, however Caranci noted those stats are impacted by extreme seasons in 2015 and 2018.

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