Smithers, B.C. – With hot and dry weather in the forecast, the BC Wildfire Service is reminding the public that all open burning, including campfires, remain prohibited in the Northwest Fire Centre.

“The current wildfire risk in the southern parts of the fire centre is high to extreme and the provincial wildfire situation remains serious,” says the BC Wildfire Service. “Fire crews from throughout the province are being deployed to fight wildfires in the Cariboo and other parts of southern B.C.”

Although sufficient firefighting resources are present in the Northwest Fire Centre, it adds it’s “vital that BC Wildfire Service resources not be diverted to respond to unnecessary and preventable human-caused fires.”

With that in mind, prohibited activities include:

• campfires
• the burning of waste, slash or other materials
• fires burning woody debris in outdoor stoves
• the use of fireworks, sky lanterns, tiki torches, chimineas, burning barrels or burning cages of any size or description
• the use of binary exploding targets (i.e. for target practices)

These prohibitions do not apply to cooking stoves that use gas, propane or briquettes, or to a portable campfire apparatus with a CSA or ULC rating that uses briquettes, liquid or gaseous fuels – so long as the height of the flame is less than 15 centimetres.

The prohibitions cover all BC Parks, Crown lands and private lands, but do not apply within the boundaries of a local government that has forest fire prevention bylaws and is serviced by a fire department.

Anyone caught contravening an open fire prohibition faces a ticket of $1,150, an administrative penalty of $10,000 and/or a jail sentence. If the contravention causes a wildfire the guilty party may be responsible to pay for all firefighting suppression costs.