The summer fire season is still months away, but already fire crews in the South Okanagan and elsewhere have been called to extinguish out-of-control campfires.
After the recent devastating wildfire seasons in British Columbia, such fires are disheartening. The three worst wildfire seasons in British Columbia鈥檚 recorded history have occurred in the last five years.
In 2018, 2,117 fires destroyed 1.35 million hectares of land. This is the worst fire season on record. The previous year was the second-worst, with more than 1.2 million hectares destroyed. And in 2021, wildfires destroyed 869,279 hectares.
There are also significant costs involved in firefighting efforts. Last year, the province spent $565 million in fire suppression efforts. There were 4,000 firefighters from British Columbia involved in these efforts, as well as 917 out-of-province firefighters.
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Each year, human-caused wildfires account for a significant percentage of the province鈥檚 wildfires.
Last year, human-caused wildfires accounted for more than one-third of the total for the year. An abandoned campfire or a carelessly discarded cigarette can result in a massive wildfire. It takes years if not decades for a burned forest to recover from such a loss.
That does not include what happens when a wildfire encroaches on communities like Lytton.
Anyone who lived in this province during these years will remember the province-wide state of emergency, the evacuation alerts, the smoky skies and the poor air quality as the fires raged.
This year鈥檚 conditions could also prove challenging as the present snow pack conditions in the Okanagan, Boundary and Similkameen are all below normal levels.
What happens this year is yet to be determined. Naturally-caused fires are beyond our control, but human-caused fires can be prevented.
After the conditions in this province in recent years, wildfire safety should be a priority for all. The devastation experienced last year, 2017 and 2018 should serve as somberreminders of the destructive power of a wildfire.
鈥� Black Press
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