Fire danger rating (Image Credit: CFJC Today)

By Michael Reeve

Fewer fires

Danger rating drops to moderate as wildfire season winds down

Sep 20, 2022 | 5:25 PM

As cooler temperatures hit the region, the wildfire season has begun to wind down. There are currently 23 fires burning across the Kamloops Fire Centre and none are listed as a wildfire of note.

The largest fire in British Columbia is burning in the Prince George Fire Centre and is listed at more than 30,000 hectares.

Fire Information Officer Aydan Coray confirmed that the fire danger rating in most of the area has dropped to moderate and fire starts have calmed in the past few weeks. And while the region saw roughly the same amount of fires as 2021, the total area burned has been far less.

“We’ve seen about 412 wildfires in the Kamloops Fire Centre, burning 21,700 hectares this year so far. Last year, we had about 445 wildfires burning close to 497,000 hectares. so quite a difference from the 2021 fire season,” said Coray.

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Coray credited the quick work of initial attack crews for limiting fire spread, about 84 per cent of Kamloops Fire Centre fires were stopped before reaching one hectare.

The vast majority of fires in the Kamloops Fire Centre were caused by lightning, as the region was hammered by summer storms.

“Through June, July and August, we had accumulative 24,000 lightning strikes in the Kamloops Fire Centre alone. This season, we had about 72 per cent of our wildfires caused by lightning and 27 per cent caused by humans,” added Coray.