A helicopter pilot has died in a crash in Alberta’s northern Peace River area while fighting wildfires. The Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) issued a deployment notice on July 20, stating it was sending a team of investigators to Alberta following an accident involving a Bell 205A helicopter during firefighting operations near Peace River….

The B.C. government has called on residents to conserve water as officials continue to monitor drought conditions in the province. “Consider taking shorter showers. Only do full loads of dishes and laundry. Water your lawn sparingly,” said Emergency Management Minister Bowinn Ma at a press conference on July 10 where she announced the expansion of…

The British Columbia government has warned that a return to more seasonal spring conditions is raising the risk of lightning-caused wildfires heading into the long weekend, after a prolonged hot and dry spell across much of the province. The forecast for Fort St. John, in wildfire-embattled northeastern B.C., shows a risk of thunderstorms starting Friday…

The BC Wildfire Service says large open burning will be banned across the province to prevent human-caused wildfires. Under the province’s fire ban designations, Category 2 and 3 openburning will be prohibited starting at noon Thursday. This includes large open fires, other than a campfire, that burn material in one or more piles not exceeding…

Two out-of-control wildfires in northeastern British Columbia have nearly doubled in size in one day. Evacuation orders remain in place for much of the areas surrounding the Red Creek and Boundary Lake fires, about 1,300 kilometres northeast of Vancouver. The B.C. Wildfire Service said Sunday the fire at Boundary Lake was an estimated 5,900 hectares,…

An evacuation order has been expanded in British Columbia after a wildfire near the province’s southern border has more than quadrupled in size since the weekend, says the BC Wildfire Service (BCWS). The Keremeos Creek Wildfire, located about 20 kilometres southwest of Penticton, was burning a surface area of just over four kilometres on July 31, but…

VANCOUVER—Two of the largest wildfires in British Columbia are now classified as “being held” after weeks of burning out of control and forcing people out of their homes. The BC Wildfire Service said Thursday the nearly 900-square-kilometre Sparks Lake fire burning north of Kamloops is contained, meaning suppression has been sufficient to ensure it is…

The B.C. government needs to rethink how it manages the province’s forests and adapt its approach to fires, including prioritizing the use of prescribed burning, to reduce the severity of ever-worsening wildfires, says a forestry scientist. “Our old policy was always to put out every fire, thinking fire was only bad, that all it did…

Residents in more areas of British Columbia have been forced from their homes indefinitely, this time by wildfires whipped up by strong winds in the southeastern part of the province. The Regional District of Central Kootenay has ordered more than 170 properties evacuated along a 10-kilometre strip of the Slocan River north of Appledale, near…

A new wildfire in British Columbia has forced the evacuation of nearly 80 properties, while residents of hundreds more homes around the south Okanagan lakeside community of Okanagan Falls have been ordered to be ready to go on short notice. The BC Wildfire Service says flames in the hills on the southeast side of Skaha…