Effective at noon on Wednesday, May 27, 2015, Category 2 open fires will be prohibited in the Coastal Fire Centre’s jurisdiction to help prevent human-caused wildfires and protect public safety.
This prohibition will remain in effect until Oct. 16, 2015, or the public is otherwise notified.
This prohibition covers all BC Parks, Crown lands and private lands within the Coastal Fire Centre, with the exception of the area known as the “Fog Zone” and Haida Gwaii. It does not apply within the boundaries of a local government that has wildfire prevention bylaws in place and is serviced by a fire department. Before lighting any fire, residents should contact local authorities to check if any other restrictions are in place.
A map of the affected area is available online at: http://bit.ly/1HIOlOb
Specifically, this Category 2 open fire prohibition applies to:
– The burning of any material (piled or unpiled) smaller than two metres in height and three metres in width.
– The burning of stubble or grass fires over an area less than 2,000 square metres.
– The use of fireworks, firecrackers, sky lanterns, burning barrels or burning cages of any size or description.
– The use of binary exploding targets (e.g., for rifle target practice).
This order does not prohibit campfires that are a half-metre high by a half-metre wide or smaller, or apply to cooking stoves that use gas, propane or briquettes.
People lighting a campfire must maintain a fireguard by removing flammable debris from around the campfire area and they must have a hand tool or at least eight litres of water available nearby to properly extinguish the fire. Make sure that your fire is completely extinguished and the ashes are cold to the touch before you leave the area for any length of time.
Any person lighting larger Category 3 fires (or more than two fires of any size) must comply with open burning regulations and must first obtain a burn registration number by calling 1 888 797-1717.
Anyone who lights, fuels or uses an open fire when a fire prohibition is in place or fails to comply with an open fire prohibition may be issued a ticket for $345 or, if convicted in court, be fined up to $100,000 and/or sentenced to one year in jail. If the contravention causes or contributes to a wildfire, the person responsible may be subject to a penalty of up to $10,000 and ordered to pay all firefighting and associated costs.
The Coastal Fire Centre covers all of the area west of the height of land on the Coast Mountain Range from the U.S.-Canada border at Manning Park, including Tweedsmuir South Provincial Park in the north, the Sunshine Coast, the Lower Mainland, Vancouver Island, the Gulf Islands and Haida Gwaii.
To report a wildfire, call 1 800 663-5555 toll-free or *5555 on a cellphone.
For the latest information on current wildfire activity, burning restrictions, road closures and air quality advisories, go to: http://www.bcwildfire.ca
You can also follow the latest wildfire news:
– On Twitter at: https://twitter.com/BCGovFireInfo
– On Facebook at: http://facebook.com/BCForestFireInfo
Media Contacts:
Donna MacPherson or Marg Drysdale
Fire Information Officers
Wildfire Management Branch
Coastal Fire Centre
250 951-4209
Connect with the Province of B.C. at: www.gov.bc.ca/connect
Fire Centre Bulletin 2338
After twelve years of service as the president of The Cortes Island Fire-Fighting Association Ben Fulton has retired from the board. We are most grateful to Ben for his dedicated leadership in providing Cortes Island with the excellent fire-fighting service we now have at our disposal. We also owe a great deal of thanks to the other outgoing board of directors for their many years of service and the vast time commitment they made to CIFFA; Bertha Jeffery, Wilson Baker, Rankin Smith and Bob Peterson. A warm welcome to the new board, who bring with them their energy and enthusiasm to start a new year of serving Cortes! The board has approved the nomination of board member Chris Walker as the new president.
During December the following training was completed by members.
Dan Pippin took a train the trainer course for the new Office of the Fire Commissioner Exterior Firefighting course. 4 other members will take the same training in January 2015.
Brian Cant, Eli McKenty and Alex Bernier took wharf and dock firefighting course. They learned how to fight fires on docks and wharves. The Fire Department is working with the Harbour Authority to make other improvements to dock firefighting capabilities.
On behalf of myself and the entire Cortes Island Fire Department I would like to wish all Cortes Islanders a happy and safe holiday season. We look forward to continuing to improve service in 2015.
Stay safe,
Dan Pippin
Fire Chief
Cortes Island Fire Rescue
First and foremost CIFFA would like to thank the Fire Fighters and Chief Pippin, without their hard work and dedication we wouldn’t be where we are today! Cindy Beaulieu also receives a HUGE thank you, she is the back bone of the organization and is a shining star! We owe a great deal of thanks to the outgoing board of directors for their many years of service and the vast time commitment they made to CIFFA. They are Bertha Jeffery, Wilson Baker, Rankin Smith and Bob Peterson. A warm welcome to the new board, who bring with them their energy and enthusiasm to start a new year of serving Cortes!
Ben Fulton- President
David Robertson- Vice President
Rick Kolstad- Treasurer
Stephanie Asbeck- Secretary
Directors at Large:
Ken Hanuse
Pat Whelan
Eli McKenty
Chris Walker
Mac Diver
We would like to thank everyone who participated in the 2014 AGM, all the members and volunteers for their support, time and energy and thank Sandra Wood for everything she has done for our organization. We are very excited to announce that next year will be our 30th year anniversary!
The Cortes Island Fire-Fighting Association will be having their AGM @ Fire Hall #1 in Manson’s Landing on Tuesday, October 28th, 7 p.m.. Come and chat with our Fire Chief Dan Pippin.
Effective at noon on Aug. 1, 2014, campfires will once again be prohibited in all areas of the Coastal Fire Centre, with the exception of Haida Gwaii and the coastal area known as the “fog zone”.
The fog zone is a two-kilometre-wide strip along the outer coast of Vancouver Island, stretching from Owen Point (near Port Renfrew) north to the tip of Vancouver Island and around to the boundary of the District of Port Hardy. This strip extends inland two kilometres from the hightide
point.
A map of the areas affected by the prohibition is available online at:http://bit.ly/1uHHGgU
The Coastal Fire Centre is implementing this campfire ban due to increasing temperatures and no precipitation in the forecast. This is the second strong drying period of the summer, with lightning in the forecast through the long weekend. Public assistance is needed to reduce the number of human-caused fires and enable crews to respond to naturally occurring wildfires.
The following uses will not be allowed:
• campfires, as defined by the wildfire regulation
• open fires in an outdoor stove
This prohibition does 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. The use of tiki torches, fireworks
or sky lanterns is also prohibited.
This prohibition covers all BC Parks, Crown lands and private lands, but does not apply within the boundaries of local governments that have forest fire prevention bylaws and are serviced by fire departments. Please check with local governments for any other restrictions before
lighting a fire.
Category 3 open fires continue to be restricted throughout the Coastal Fire Centre’s jurisdiction. Small backyard burning piles (Category 2 fires) remain prohibited within the Coastal Fire Centre, except in Haida Gwaii and the “fog zone”.
Category 2 burning includes:
• the burning of any material in piles larger than a half-metre high by a half-metre wide, up
to two metres high by three metres wide
• the burning of stubble or grass up to 0.2 hectares in size
Starting at noon, Thursday, July 17 there is a total campfire ban in effect. This prohibition applies to campfires and open burning of any size or description, including fires with a burn registration number and industrial burning. The use of fireworks, burning barrels, tiki torches and sky lanterns is also not permitted.
The prohibition does 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, as long as the height of the flame is less than 15 centimetres.
This prohibition covers all BC Parks, Crown lands and private lands.
