The worst of the B.C. wildfire season may be over.
According to chief fire information office Kevin Skrepnek, there is a lot less fire activity occurring in the province, temperatures are cooling, and the risk of dry lighting is tapering off.
“We are heading into a fairly cool, wet pattern. It’s probably safe to say the worst is over,” Skrepnek said. “But, there are definitely some areas of the province that are still very much under threat. It is also not uncommon to see a relatively warm September as well.”
A record number of hectares have burned this fire season at an estimated 1,252,000 hectares, the previous record being in 2017 at 1,216,000 hectares.
“That jump in number wasn’t due to a dramatic increase in fire activity or anything like that,” he said. “It was just based on better mapping, as we were contending with such a thick cloud of smoke over the province. So, getting an accurate number on these fires had been quite challenging.”
Skrepnek cautioned that while 2018 does hold the record for hectares burned, it doesn’t correlate to impact on people and property.
“Looking at 2003 and last year just to name a few, definitely the overall impact of those years to property, values and timber values was quite a bit higher than this year.”
The total cost to date for the BC Wildfire Service for strictly fire suppression is $360 million.
“Looking at the last five years, at money spent in terms of this date, this would be the second most spent with the first being last year,” said Skrepnek. “For comparison sake, as of this date in 2017, our estimated cost we are sitting at a little over $442 million.”