Premier Christy Clark is asking campers to be careful this long weekend after getting a bird's eye view Friday morning of a massive forest fire near Prince George.
Clark took a helicopter flight over the Little Bobtail Lake forest fire, which stood at 130 square kilometres - about the size of the City of Vancouver. An evacuation order affecting about 80 people has been issued as a result of the blaze, which was discovered a week ago.
The cause of the fire is under investigation but Clark said it was likely due to human activity.
"We're on the edge of the May long weekend, people are going to be camping, people are going to be out in the woods - a great thing about living in British Columbia - but please be careful," Clark said.
If there is an upside, it's that it's the only major wildfire currently burning in the province which means a full complement of resources are being devoted to battling the blaze.
"But here's the thing," Clark said. "There has not been a fire this big so early in the year since 1983, and this fire's bigger.
"This is going to be a really dry year. There's a lot of pine beetle wood out there, we had a great dry winter and the bad end of that is we're probably going to have a very bad forest fire season, so people need to be really, really careful this year."
2014 was the third worst forest fire season since the provincial government began keeping records in 1950 as 1,424 fires consumed more than 3,590 square kilometres of forest. Fighting them ran up a $293-million tab, well over the $63 million the government had budgeted for the effort.
"We'll spend whatever we need to, to make sure that we're looking after fires and we've always got money in contingencies to do that," Clark said. "But it's not just the money that would otherwise that would otherwise be spent perhaps on other things, like hospital beds and special needs teachers.
"It's people's property, it's all the jobs that go up in smoke when all that lumber burns. It's human lives, it's the 120 men and women who are out there putting their lives on the line every day to fight this fire, those are the things we need to think about."
Exactly what ignited the Little Bobtail Lake forest fire is not yet known but Clark said there were no signs it was naturally caused.
"There wasn't evidence of lightning, there are no powerlines through the area, so in all likelihood it was human caused," Clark said.
She said the flight gave her a sense of just how large the fire is and how many homes are in jeopardy.
"There are 200 to 400 homes at some of the lakes here, that's a lot of housing, a lot of people, a lot of lives," Clark said.
Wildfire management branch fire information officer Melissa Klassen said weather conditions being experience right now are more typical for July or August.
"We're way ahead of our fire season here and that's what's creating this unpredictable and aggressive fire behaviour that we would normally be seeing later in the summer," Klassen said. "It's a bit concerning given the fact that this is the start of the fire season and things are only going to continue to get hotter and drier."
A ban against open burning outside municipal limits is now in place although small campfires are still permitted. The maximum size allowed is a half-metre wide by a half-metre high.
There must also be a one-metre fuel-free area around the campfire and campers are asked to refrain from lighting a campfire or keeping it burning in windy conditions. They're also asked to never leave a campfire unattended and to make sure it is completely extinguished and the
ashes are cold to the touch before leaving the area for any length of time.
The provincial government has said conservation officers, natural resource officers and park rangers will be out in force this long weekend, and keeping an eye out for unattended or overly large campfires will be on of their tasks.
Anyone found in contravention of an open fire prohibition may be issued a ticket for $345 or, if convicted in court, be fined up to $100,000 and sentenced to one year in jail.
If the contravention causes or contributes to a wildfire, the person may be subject to a penalty of up to $10,000 and be ordered to pay all firefighting and associated costs.
Campers are also urged to refrain from parking motorized vehicles on grass or in areas where the exhaust system is close to combustible material and use approved spark arresters on their vehicles exhaust systems.
Klassen also advises cabin owners to make sure the immediate area surrounding their homes are free from fuel - from branches and foliage to cans of gas and other flammable liquids.
- with files from Canadian Press
