Provincial wildfire officials in northwest B.C. and the Cariboo region have sent out warnings after more than a dozen fires were caused by people this month.
The fires were generally caused by spring burning, with people trying to clear dead grass and other materials.
In the Cariboo region, the B.C. Ministry of Forests, Land and Natural Resources has put in place an open fire ban that goes into effect on Monday. It will remain in place until Sept. 30, or until further notice.
It bans burning any waste, slash or other materials in a fire one metre by one metre. It also bans burning of grass over an area of any size or using burning barrels of any size.
There have already been 11 fires, all caused by humans in the Cariboo fire centre region, which stretches north of Quesnel to Cottonwood, and from the east at the edge of Wells Gray Provincial Park to the west to Tweedsmuir Provincial Park.
"The reason for this decision was to simply cut down on human-caused fires," said Cariboo fire centre information officer Jenny Fremlin.
She noted that about 50 per cent of wildfires in British Columbia are caused by people.
The Cariboo region is experiencing dry conditions and an elevated fire hazard.
While the fire hot zone was located in the Southern Interior in 2009, in 2010 it moved farther north, fueled by extremely dry conditions in the vast beetle-killed pine forests in this region.
More than 1,600 wildfires consumed nearly 338,000 hectares of forest and grassland last year, resulting in several evacuation alerts and orders across the Cariboo and Northwest.
Fremlin said it extremely hard to predict what the coming fire season will be like. It often depends on weather, with forecasts only known days ahead, she said.
The restriction in the Cariboo covers all B.C. Parks, Crown and private lands.
Anyone found breaking the ban may be issued a ticket for $345, or, if convicted in court, be fined up to $10,000 and sentenced to one year in jail.
The Northwest fire centre also issued a warning after responding to seven incidents over the long weekend, including four grass fires which also consumed some brush.
While the fires were relatively small, the largest consumed about seven hectares, the equivalent of about 14 football fields.
There is no open fire ban in the northwest region to the west of Prince George, but provincial officials called on the public to take precautions to prevent human-caused fires. Those precautions include not burning when it's windy, and having enough water and hand tools nearby to control a fire.
