Effective at noon on July 17, campfires will be prohibited throughout the Coastal Fire Centre’s jurisdiction, which includes the qathet region. This prohibition is being enacted to help prevent human caused wildfires and protect public safety.
Haida Gwaii Forest District and the portion of the Central Coast Regional District that falls within the North Island Central Coast Forest District are excluded from the prohibition.
Category two and category three open fire prohibitions, which were enacted in late May, remain in place, according to the Coastal Fire Centre.
According to a media release from the Coastal Fire Centre, this prohibition covers all in the fire centre outside of municipal boundaries. In addition, this prohibition applies to the following types of land within municipal boundaries:
- Parks, conservancies and recreation areas (Park Act);
- Recreation sites, recreation trails, interpretive forest sites and trail-based recreation areas (Forest and Range Practices Act);
- Ecological reserves (Ecological Reserve Act);
- Wildlife management areas (Wildlife Act); and
- Private managed forest land (Private Managed Forest Land Act)
In addition to open fires being prohibited, the following activities and equipment are also restricted in most areas:
- Fireworks; as defined in the Fireworks Act;
- Binary Exploding Targets;
- Sky Lanterns
- Wood fired hot tubs, wood fired pizza ovens and other wood fired devices unless vented through a structure that has a flue and is incorporated in a building;
- Burn Barrels or Burn Cages of any size or description;
- Controlled air incinerators
- Air curtain burners; and carbonizers.
This prohibition does not include the use of outdoor stoves. As per the Wildfire Regulation, an outdoor stove is a CSA-rated or ULC-rated device used outdoors for cooking, heat or ambiance that burns charcoal briquettes, liquid fuel or gaseous fuel, and has a flame height that is less than 15 cm tall.
Anyone found in contravention of an open fire prohibition may be issued a violation ticket for $1,150, required to pay an administrative penalty of up to $10,000 or, if convicted in court, fined up to $100,000 and/or sentenced to one year in jail, according to the fire centre. If the contravention causes or contributes to a wildfire, the person responsible may be ordered to pay all firefighting and associated costs.
The Coastal Fire Centre covers all the area west of the height of land on the Coast Mountain Range from the U.S.-Canada border at Manning Park, including Tweedsmuir South Provincial Park in the north, the Sunshine Coast, the Lower Mainland, Vancouver Island, the Gulf Islands and Haida Gwaii.
To report a wildfire, call 1 800 663-5555 toll-free or *5555 on a cell phone.
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