People in B.C. can now get notifications on their cell phone if there’s a nearby wildfire.

The BC Wildfire Service has launched a free mobile app, which also includes weather and smoke forecasts.

“I would definitely recommend everyone to download. You can get push notifications in your area and it’s a really great resource for wildfire information,” fire information officer Kyla Fraser says.

Fraser points out we are now into the early days of fire season.

“We’re starting to see fires pop up, we are heading into that time of the year. So this is a great time to work on fire-smarting your property, creating an evacuation plan if there does happen to be a wildfire in your area.”

As of Tuesday morning, there were 15 active wildfires in the province, and 13 in the Kamloops Fire Centre. The most significant blazes are at Quilchena Creek, west of Merritt, at 300 hectares, east of Okanagan Lake near Vernon at 100 hectares, and near the Coldwater River south of Merritt at 50 hectares.

Last year, 14,479 hectares burned from 658 wildfires in B.C. That made 2020 the second-least-significant wildfire season since 2008.

In 2019, a total of 825 wildfires burned 21,138 hectares of land.

The past two fire seasons in B.C. have paled in comparison to back-to-back record years in 2017, when more than 1.2 million hectares of land burned, and again in 2018 when more than 1.35 million hectares burned.