If you are going to camp in our region, don’t start a fire or it will cost you.
Sea to Sky Conservation Officers issued 13 violation tickets for illegal campfires over the long weekend, according to the BC Conservation Officer Service.
Fines issued totalled $14,950.
Most of the campfires were in the Squamish Valley.
All open burning has been prohibited in the Coastal Fire Centre, which includes Vancouver Island, the Lower Mainland, and the Sea to Sky Corridor since July 18.
Since April 1, about 70 per cent of wildfires in the Coastal Fire Centre have been caused by people, according to a provincial government press release.
“Human-caused wildfires are entirely preventable, and can divert critical firefighting resources away from naturally occurring wildfires,” reads the release.
Fire prohibitions apply to all public and private land.
The prohibitions do not apply to CSA-rated or ULC-rated cooking stoves that use gas, propane or briquettes, or to a portable campfire apparatus that uses briquettes, liquid or gaseous fuel, so long as the height of the flame is less than 15 centimetres.
There have been 1,502 wildfires in B.C. so far this year, which burned 101,326 hectares to date, according to the BC Wildfire Service.
