With windy conditions predicted for some areas of the region on Saturday, the Cariboo Fire Centre is asking the public to be cautious with any outdoor burning.
Gusts up to 40 kilometres an hour are in the forecast, CFC information officer Jessica Mack said Friday.
Forestry companies and property owners have been hurrying to complete burning before the CFC imposes a Category 3 open fire prohibition beginning on Monday, April 23 at noon.
The prohibition, while it does not apply to campfires or Category 2 fires, does include any fire larger than two metres high by three metres wide, three or more concurrently burning piles no larger than two metres high by three metres wide, one or more burning windrows and burning of stubble or grass over an area greater than 0.2 hectares.
During a FireSmart presentation at Miocene earlier this week, CFC wildfire prevention officer Rory Colwell said one of the reasons the prohibition is going into place to reduce the risk of holdover fires from burning piles.
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“It’s a challenge for the licencees and anyone we are working with,” Colwell said, noting the ideal time to burn is late fall because there is the comfort of knowing winter and snow is coming in behind it. “The risk of burning at this time of year is when piles burn really hot, they burn really deep.”
Many of the human-caused fires are related to holdover fires in the spring.
“There’s a belief that they are out, and we get a good windy day three weeks later and low and behold a fire pops out of the ground and gets into the dry grass and then we’ve got issues.”
CFC wildfire officer Matt Sherlock said there in an exemption process to get permission to burn while a ban is in place that involves having a CFC staff member come out to go over the plan and see what the property owner wants to burn.
“I think our requirements are going to be above and beyond anything that you are going to see at any other time of year,” he added. “You would have to be able to provide additional resources to make sure it isn’t going to be an issue down the road.”
Someone asked if there have been any hot spots reported from last year’s Spokin Lake Road fire and Sherlock said nothing has been reported to the CFC, however, there have been reports of hot spots on some of the other bigger fires in the region from last summer.
“It’s not a big surprise and we are expecting there to be reports. Through the winter we have been receiving them and have been filing them to a point until the snow melts and we can respond.”
Sherlock encouraged people at the Miocene meeting to report anything that is fire-related that they see through the regular 1-800-663-5555 toll free number or *5555 on a cell phone.
The Cariboo Fire Centre stretches from Loon Lake near Clinton in the south to the Cottonwood River near Quesnel in the north, and from Tweedsmuir Provincial Park in the west to Wells Gray Provincial Park in the east.
For up-to-date information on current wildfire activity, burning restrictions, road closures and air quality advisories, call 1 888 3-FOREST, or visit: www.bcwildfire.ca
