Prince George, B.C. – The province of British Columbia has now lost approximately 427,000 hectares to wildfires since the start of the 2017 fire season on April 1st.

The Cariboo region has, be far, recorded the highest area loss to fire so far this summer with 212 blazes burning more than 288,000 hectares.  The 146 fires in the Kamloops Fire Centre have consumed over 75,000 hectares while in the Prince George Fire Centre 164 fires have scorched roughly 14,000 hectares.

There have been 817 wildfires in the province but that number is most likely to be raised by officials today in the wake of hot, dry weather and scores of dry lightning strike that continued well into the evening Saturday night.

The cost of the firefighting effort to date now surpasses $166 million dollars.  The amount budgeted for the 2017 wildfire  season by the previous Liberal government was $63 million.