Prince George, B.C. – The Monday afternoon thunderstorms which rolled through Prince George and much of the Central Interior, sparked three new forest fires in the Prince George Fire Centre, but none caused any serious issues as the lightning was accompanied by heavy moisture.

 

This fire season in B.C. may go in the record books as one of the slowest in a decade, it may also go in the books as one of the least expensive and one in which human activity was to blame for the majority of fires.

 

The  cool wet conditions which have persisted over much of the province this summer have spared the forests from the usual summer rash  of flames.  The ten year average for fires in B.C. is 1,969 and this year there have been 500.

 

What is most disturbing is that the number of fires  this year could have been far less, as 300 of those fires were human caused. “There is still lots to be done to get people to be careful with campfires and burning materials” says Rhada Fisher, Fire Information Officer for the B.C. Wildfire Management Branch.

 

The current 10 year average for human caused fires in B.C. is 41%  with lightning responsible for 59%. This year those numbers are virtually reversed with 60% of the fires caused by humans, and lightning responsible for 40%.

 

Financially, this season will be one of the lowest when it comes to fire fighting  costs. The set budget for this year was $63 million dollars with the statutory authorization for more if it was needed. So far, $46 million has been spent but about half of that will be recovered when Ontario pays its bill for having B.C. firefighters head to that province to battle blazes.

 

In the past ten years, the most expensive fire fighting season was 2009, when $382.1 million dollars was spent fighting fires, the least expensive was 2002 when $37.8 million was spent.

 

Still, Fisher says things could change “Although we are able to respond to fire starts September through October, realistically, we start to scale back our operations now. There are still some dry pockets in the Province, especially in the Cranbrook-Kimberly area, so you can’t be certain.”