Fire Fighting Bill Tops $170 Million

Monday, August 30, 2010 12:12 PM

Prince George, B.C.- The cost of fighting forest fires in the province has topped $170 million for this season.

As of yesterday, the fires had burned 322,349 hectares of which more than half (166,177 hectares) were in the Cariboo Fire Centre.

In the Prince George Fire Centre, there have been 449 fires which destroyed 23,511hectares.

As the wildfire situation eases, the Cariboo Fire Cente has lifted its campfire ban effective immediately.

The rescinding of the campfire ban applies to all BC Parks, Crown and private lands, but does not apply within the boundaries of local governments that have open fire bylaws and are serviced by a fire department. Please check with civic authorities for any restrictions before lighting a fire.

Campfires must not be larger than 0.5 meters wide or 0.5 meters tall. Anyone who lights a campfire must have a hand tool such as a shovel, or at least eight litres of water nearby to fully extinguish it. Never leave a campfire unattended, and make sure ashes are completely cold to the touch before leaving the area.

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Posted on Monday, August 30, 2010 12:12 PM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: Loki on August 30 2010 1:18 PM

Next years budget, $50 million again. This even though the average is $150 million per fire season.

Posted by: gus on August 30 2010 2:04 PM

Seems a touch on the low side based on the size of fires so far. The largest area since the past 10 years. Larger than the 2003 season. The fires are not finished yet and mop up will take a couple of months.

Sounds like danger tree problems on some of the roads that should be resolved for the safety of those travelling along the roads.

Costs over the past 10 years.
http://bcwildfire.ca/History/average.htm

Posted by: rural on August 30 2010 8:55 PM

Yes, the budget for next year will be 50 million, because it is the base cost to train and equip firefighters to be ready to respond, which needs to be done even if there are no fires. If they were given a budget of 150 million, and had no fires, they'd be sure to spend every dime anyway. The province has always maintained they would spend what was needed to fight the fires. Not make sure every firefighter drive a new truck!

Posted by: Chester on August 30 2010 9:19 PM

Wasn't our local gambling revenue $50 Million? All of a sudden, $170 Million doesn't seem like much.

Posted by: RIP commonsense on August 31 2010 8:21 AM

The province will spend what is needed to fight the fires.
As rural says it is a base amount.
Here's an idea, for you guys on constant whine.
All you experts form a pool on who can predict what Mother Nature will burn.
Winner collects all.
Then you can lay claim to the Armchair Quarterback Bragging Rights and tell everyone I told you so.

Posted by: gus on August 31 2010 9:27 AM

Here is another idea.

Why don't we do the same with snow removal? Never mind setting aside a snow removal fund of several million, we'll just budget $500,000 instead of the $4 million or so and pick up the rest when the snow starts falling because they don't deserve new vehicles.

Or why doesn't ICBC and WCB cash in all the hundreds of millions of reserves they have to pay out unknown amounts of claims every year because that money could be used elsewhere?

I do not know where the reserve is sitting, but it is sitting somewhere or they just add it to the debt at the end of the year. And, if that is getting too high, the taxes might be raised or some programs will be cut in the next year's budget.

How many programs that the province has are funded in this seat of the pants fashion?

I am not whining, I am merely asking a question of how the accounting and budgeting actually works for such matters. Seems to me this is thrown in with the "self insuring" component of government policy that covers other unknown "disasters" as well.