Despite recent rainfalls, the campfire prohibition remains in place in the municipality, Crown land and parks in anticipation of a return to hot dry conditions this weekend.
Outflow winds were forecast to resume Thursday (Aug. 12), bringing dry and smoky air from of the Interior of the province, out to the Coast.
Above normal temperatures are expected, accompanied with low daytime and nighttime relative humidity values.
Those conditions will rapidly dry coastal forest fuels, states a Coastal Fire Centre news release. The public is asked to stay vigilant in preventing wildfires - as with the very dry conditions ahead any spark or ember could start a wildfire.
The Coastal Fire Centre release also stated the organization is anticipating a significant increase in the number of fire starts this weekend, some of which will be from lightning storms that occurred last week.
Lightning strikes in heavily forested areas often smoulder undetected until there is a hot dry spell of weather.
Despite widespread fire concerns over the BC Day long weekend, 28 violation tickets and five warnings were issued by the Conservation Officer Service.
According to conservation officer Dave Jevons, Squamish residents seem to be getting the message, but outside visitors are not heeding campfire bans.
"I'd say almost 98 per cent of the violations were people from Vancouver and the Lower Mainland," he said.
He said most people were well aware of the fire ban, but justified their actions by saying "It's just a small fire, it's controlled."
Conservation officers have been patrolling routinely, and late into the night, and will continue until the fire ban is lifted.
The public is asked to assist in fighting wildfires by reporting suspicions to *5555 or 1-800-663-5555.
The Coastal Fire Centre is responsible for wildfire response for about 2.1 million hectares of land.
Geographically, the Centre covers all the area west of the height of land on the Coast Mountain range from the U.S./Canada border at Manning Park to Tweedsmuir Park in the north, the Sunshine Coast, the Lower Mainland, all of Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands.
