B.C.’s wildfire season rages on, over 2 million hectares of land affected

Fire officials in B.C. say over two million hectares of land has been scorched this year as the province’s worst wildfire season in recorded history rages on.

The BC Wildfire Service records data for the season starting on April 1, and its data shows that approximately 2,259,820 hectares — or 22,598 square kilometres — have been burned so far this year.

---

Related video:

---

In addition, total fires in the province this year have reached 2,084 — 1,486 of which are at least suspected to have been caused by lightning. Lightning strikes have sparked some of the largest and most dangerous fires this season like the 583,153-hectare Donnie Creek fire — B.C.’s biggest fire in recorded history — the Kookipi Creek fire, the Bush Creek East fire, and the Bendor Complex fire near Lillooet.

---

Read more:

• Some West Kelowna residents will be able to visit destroyed homes by bus

• Lightning sparks about 40 new B.C. wildfires, but rain may bring relief 

• Will take ‘weeks, not days’ to contain West Kelowna fire: officials

---

Last year’s wildfire season paled in comparison when it comes to pure land mass torched by fires. The BC Wildfire Service says it detected 1,758 fires over the course of the season — 326 less than we’ve seen so far this year — but only an estimated 133,437 hectares of land was burned, barely a fraction of the area to see fire this year.

“The 2022 wildfire season started later than usual due to sufficient winter precipitation and a cool, wet spring,” the service explained at the end of the season.

“Many areas of the province set temperature records and accumulated rainfall amounts through September that were below normal levels. Despite the late drought conditions, the 2022 wildfire season remained below normal in terms of number of fires and area burned statistics.”

Current wildfire situation

Data from the BC Wildfire Service shows that 432 fires are active in BC as of Monday evening, two of which have been discovered within the last 24 hours. Of those fires, 25 of them are believed to have been human-caused 348 are suspected to have been caused by lightning — while the causes remain unknown for 59 active fires.

Taking a look at the province’s major wildfires, the service says 14 out-of-control blazes are currently considered “wildfires of note.”

Among those is the Bush Creek East fire — part of the Adams Lake complex fires that have been ravaging the Shuswap region since July. The fire is estimated as being 43,084 hectares in size, and it has made its way around Adams Lake and down across to the south side of Shuswap Lake near communities like Sorrento and Chase.

The Kookipi Creek fire near Boston Bar, B.C. prompted an evacuation order in the area around the Nahatlatch River on Aug. 17 after growing significantly in a short time. The order was downgraded to an evacuation alert on Monday afternoon according to an announcement from the Fraser Valley Regional District, but the district cautions that this could change back to an evacuation order without much notice.

Meanwhile, the McDougall Creek fire that prompted mass evacuations after threatening West Kelowna is currently estimated as being 13,712 hectares in size, and still has much of the area north of the city under evacuation order. Central Okanagan Emergency Operations says approximately 405 remain on evacuation order in the region, and adds these orders will likely remain in place for another one to two weeks — over 20,000 additional properties are on evacuation alert as well.

With files from Charlie Carey and Emma Crawford