The B.C. Conservation Officer Service (BCCOS) said it handed out nearly $30,000 in fines to campers for violating campfire bans on the South Coast over the recent B.C. Day long weekend.
In a social media post, the service said it issued 26 violation tickets — amounting to $1,150 each — to campers in the Coastal Fire Centre from Friday until Monday.
Calvin Rochon, a Squamish-based conservation officer, said there were 16 tickets handed out in the Sea-to-Sky region over the long weekend. At some campfires, multiple people were issued tickets.
“We have beautiful natural resources here in the province and to keep them as they are … we need people to respect the wildfire restrictions and closures,” he told CBC News.
Two violation tickets were also issued to people for accessing restricted areas near the out-of-control Wesley Ridge wildfire on Vancouver Island.
“Just being in that area alone is against regulations, and then having the fire, of course, is against those restrictions as well,” Rochon said.
He said officers were seeing a “high volume of non-compliance” since the campfire ban went into effect on the South Coast on July 17.
The campfire ban does not apply to Haida Gwaii and parts of the Central Coast, including Bella Coola.
Campfires — which fall under Category 1 fires, according to the B.C. Wildfire Service — are fires that are no more than half a metre high by half a metre wide, though outdoor stoves are still allowed under the ban.
“Open fire is the largest cause of human-caused fires provincially,” said Christi Howes, a fire information officer with the B.C. Wildfire Service. “Human-caused wildfires are entirely preventable and may divert crucial resources from naturally occurring and/or existing wildfires that we are tasked with.”
Howes said fire prohibitions are useful to lower the chance of more human-caused fires, especially when firefighters anticipate more lightning-caused fires, or in “critical fire situations” like the province is under right now.
She said firefighters were seeing high seasonal temperatures and historically dry conditions this month.
At a news conference on Wednesday, provincial officials said that rain over the province on Wednesday would only provide a limited reprieve.
“What it does is it resets our conditions, but only at a very micro scale,” Cliff Chapman, the B.C. Wildfire Service’s director of provincial operations, said of the rain.
“So we get a couple of days to really actively use direct attack on our fires … it gives us the ability to do that, but it doesn’t knock down the hazard for the whole province for the rest of the fire season.”
Anyone breaching fire bans could be hit with a $1,150 violation ticket, an administrative penalty of up to $10,000, or fines of up to $100,000 and one year in jail if convicted in court.
If a wildfire is triggered, the person responsible could have to pay all firefighting costs, which Rochon says could amount to hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars.
“It’s a huge public safety risk. So it’s honestly not worth one night of a good time with your buddies in the backcountry,” he said. “Just respect the regulations and restrictions … until you’re allowed to have fires again.”
Larger Category 2 and Category 3 fires — which include larger stubble fires and large burn piles — are already prohibited throughout B.C.
Howes said the ban will be in place until Oct. 31, but it could be rescinded before then if there is a lot of rain or lower temperatures.
