Wildfire 2017: A look back at the worst fire season in BC’s history
KAMLOOPS — 2017 was an unprecedented year for wildfires in British Columbia. At the height of the crisis, it’s estimated over 65 000 people were forced from their homes due to the danger some of those fires posed to communities throughout the province. Now that the summer heat has turned to snow and cold, the BC Wildfire Service is taking time to look back, while making preparations for 2018.
The Kamloops Fire Centre is quiet these days. Well-worn equipment sits stowed on shelves, after a frantic season of fighting fires.
“Certainly BC will remember 2017 as one of the worst fire seasons on record,” Provincial Fire Information Officer Ryan Turcot told CFJC Today. “Over 1.2 million hectares of land burned… just over $561,000,000, just in suppression costs alone… and just the amount of people displaced by this year’s fire season, over 65,000 people were evacuated over the course of the summer.”
It all seemed to come at once, as a result record high temperatures in early July and a lack of precipitation; just two factors that made 2017 the worst fire year on record.