While many North Okanagan residents are thinking and dealing with flooding concerns, a reminder was served Monday that wildfire season is also upon us.
A three-member crew from the BC Wildfire Service extinguished a small fire off the King Edward Lake Forest Service Road Monday.
“It appeared to have been an abandoned bonfire,” said Brenna Ward, fire information officer with the Kamloops Fire Centre. “The fire was .01 hectares, about three metres by five metres, and the crew put it out before it had a chance to spread. It hadn’t got into the trees yet.”
The size of the fire went against a fire prohibition put in place May 15 at elevations below 1,200 metres. The prohibition is in effect until Oct. 15.
A poster explaining the different categories of open burning is available online at http://ow.ly/znny309kJv5
A map of the affected areas is available online at http://ow.ly/ADqk30jXefC
Specifically, prohibited activities at elevations below 1,200 metres will include:
* the burning of more than two open fires of any size at the same time;
* stubble or grass fires of any size over any area;
* the use of fireworks, sky lanterns, tiki torches (and similar kinds of torches), or burning barrels and cages of any size or description;
* the use of binary exploding targets.
“This prohibition does not ban campfires that are a half-metre high by a half-metre wide (or smaller), and does not apply to cooking stoves that use gas, propane or briquettes,” said Ward.
This prohibition covers all B.C. parks, Crown lands and private lands in the Kamloops Fire Centre, but it does not apply within the boundaries of a local government that has forest fire protection bylaws in place and is serviced by a fire department.
Before lighting any fire, residents should check with local government authorities for any other restrictions before lighting any fire.
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