British Columbia wildfires by the numbers: Over 650,000 hectares burned

Josh Duncan
KamloopsbcNow
Tue, 10 Aug 2021 17:30 UTC

The sun has risen on another summer day in British Columbia where thousands of hard-working personnel are combining their efforts to get the province's ongoing wildfire situation under control.

Since April 1, there have been 1,451 wildfires in BC that have burned just over 650,000 hectares of land.

Currently, there are 260 active wildfires and here's how they break down by region:

Kamloops Fire Centre - 80
Southeast Fire Centre - 62
Prince George Fire Centre - 58
Cariboo Fire Centre - 32
Coastal Fire Centre - 22
Northwest Fire Centre - 6

More than 3,500 firefighters and other personnel are currently assigned to wildfires throughout the province and 364 of them are from outside of BC.

They're receiving aerial support from 209 helicopters and planes.

As a result of wildfires, there are 63 evacuation orders and 108 evacuation alerts in place that are affecting 6,219 and 31,902 properties respectively.

Here's how they break down by Emergency Management BC region:

Central - 52 orders and 96 alerts
Northeast - 5 orders and 7 alerts
Southeast - 2 orders and 10 alerts
Southwest - 3 orders and 3 alerts
Northwest - 0 orders and 2 alerts
Vancouver Island Central Coast - 1 order and 0 alerts

For all the latest information on BC's constantly evolving wildfire situation, click this link.

Reader Comments

Coyne1959 · 2021-08-10T21:49:20Z

Forest fires in BC are nothing new and also help to renew the forests - even if it inconveniences a few people. Enough with the climate change porn.

Good Optics · 2021-08-11T03:17:48Z

Coyne1959

Forest fires in BC are nothing new and also help to renew the forests - even if it inconveniences a few people

Uh huh, try having 3 fires just a few miles up the road from your daughter, the house she just bought and her entire community, road closures, smoke that's literally off the AQI charts [Link] for two straight weeks then talk to me about mere "inconvenience".

Demore · 2021-08-11T14:59:47Z

Coyne1959 ''Forest fires in BC are nothing new...''

I has never been this bad.

boli · 2021-08-11T00:56:37Z

Unless there is enough local flow, so that discharges are of sufficiently high voltages, we do not see electric sparks in the flow. If there is enough, we see sparks and the really big ones are called "lightning". It seems to me that areas of high electricity coming from the ground itself are at least half the source of lightning (the other half being in the atmosphere itself). Lightning displays that are close enough to you can induce your hairs to "stand on end", which is a pretty clear warning to GTFO (toward flatter non-treeful areas). It also seems likely to me that volcanic activity is electrical, often with deep tubes of liquid rock crrying heavy currents.

The greater point is that there is IMO a solid probability that many of the wildfires are not caused by camping or other fire-starting accidents, but by sub-luminous currents that cause an entire area to all catch fire at once.

IMO, of course, but YMMV.

Alisadoll · 2021-08-11T14:06:43Z

These fires are part of the plan to get all people off of rural land and out of small towns. Agenda 21 and 2030. Read all about it here [Link]

mini super · 2021-08-11T14:21:56Z

The media & government has been vilifying residents who ignore evacuation orders. This excellent, timely local documentary tells the other side of the story.

[Link]