Province keeping close eye on wildfires through heat wave

One year ago, smoke blotted out the sun and the sky in Prince George as the province was in the midst of the worst wildfire season ever recorded.

2024 has been a welcome change for the region and province, but the province is on high alert with a persistent heat wave adding to a pre-existing drought.

“With the current heat and forecasted conditions, we are preparing for the possibility that wildfire starts will increase in an accelerated manner from this day forward,” Minister of Emergency Management and Climate Readiness, Bowinn Ma, said at a provincial news conference this morning (Thursday).

Cliff Chapman, the Director of the BC Wildfire Service, said they have proactively requested six 25-person crews, two incident management teams, and aviation resources to come to the province and aid in the wildfire fight.

“We need to make sure we have adaquet resources for today, but also for the next two months,” Chapman said. “We are asking early so we can get those resources into BC while we continue to use our contracted resources.”

“Given the conditions we have seen in the last seven days and what we forecast for the foreseeable future, the whole province is experiencing very significant weather,” he said. “Every fire has the potential to be a concern if we don’t get on it right away.”

35 new fires have started in the province in the last 24 hours, there are 152 active fires across BC.

113 of those fires are in the Prince George Fire Centre.

There are only two wildfires of note in the province, both in the Northwest fire zone.