Image Credit: BC Wildfire Service

By Victor Kaisar

Wildfire Season Recap

BC Wildfire Service recaps fourth-worst fire season on record

Dec 29, 2024 | 2:11 PM

KAMLOOPS — The BC Wildfire Service is looking back on the fourth-worst fire season on record that saw 1,688 wildfires burn a little over a million hectares of land across the province since April 1.

It says there were 394 fires across the Kamloops Fire Centre this summer, where 52,785 hectares of land was burned. Most of that was caused by the massive Shetland Creek blaze near Spences Bridge, which grew to just under 28,000 hectares in size.

Most of the land burned this summer – 810,876 hectares – was in the Prince George Fire Centre, where there were a total of 449 wildfires, 27 of which are still active and under control.

“It might have felt to some like it wasn’t as hectic as 2023, but many of our staff and crews probably did as many deployments as they did last year,” BC Wildfire Service Director of Provincial Operations Cliff Chapman said. “They probably spent as many days on the line or close to as many days on the line as they did in 2023.”

“The season itself, it started early. We knew it would. We knew we were coming out of the winter with drought. We knew we had a lot of fire on the landscape, in particular in the northeast of the Prince George Fire Centre,” Chapman added.

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“And to nobody’s surprise, the fire season did start early so we had to really surge a number of resources up to the Prince George Fire Centre.”

According to the Ministry of Forests, over 70 per cent of the fires in B.C. this season were sparked by lightning, with a little under 30 per cent caused by human activity.

“I want to thank the hardworking members of the BC Wildfire Service who put their lives on the line every day to protect British Columbians and their communities from the devastating impact of wildfires,” new B.C. Forests Minister Ravi Parmar said, in a statement.

“Their dedication and bravery are nothing short of extraordinary, especially as wildfire seasons grow longer and more intense, putting greater pressure on people, ecosystems and communities.”

The province issued 51 evacuation orders that impacted more than 4,100 properties across B.C.. It also issued 112 evacuation alerts that affected over 11,600 properties.

“People’s lives are increasingly being impacted by the effects of climate change and we must be proactive in how we prepare for climate-driven emergencies,” new Minister of Emergency Management and Climate Readiness Kelly Greene added.

“We have applied lessons learned from 2023 wildfires by introducing flexible supports for evacuees, making it easier for people to receive those supports and improving preparedness tools. Our first priority is to ensure that people and communities have the tools and resources they need to stay safe during emergencies.”

Chapman also said the BC Wildfire Service made several improvements in 2024 in a bid to better prepare and respond to wildfires in future years.

“We saw some great innovations in particular around the cooperative community wildfire response program,” Chapman said. “The night-vision flying with our helicopters was a big step forward in how we fight fire at night using a tanking aircraft.”

“As well, we were really aggressive with initial attack, sending multiple crews, sending multiple aircraft, and we were seeing a lot of success in particular in the early part of the fire season.”

Other improvements in 2024 include upgraded firefighting equipment and the announcement of a new first-of-its-kind wildfire training and education centre at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops.

The 2024 wildfire season was the fourth-worst on record with the 2023, 2018, and 2017 fire seasons the three worst on record based on total area burned.

You can find a detailed summary of the 2024 wildfire season here.