This catastrophic wildfire season in B.C. has now become the third-worst on record, when it comes to the amount of land affected.
As of 7 p.m. on Thursday night, more than 858,000 hectares of land has burned across the province – or 8,580 square kilometres – passing 1958 for the third-worst year on record. In 1958, just under 856,000 hectares of land burned.
Records on wildfires seasons in B.C. go back to 1950, and in that time, the three worst fire seasons for land lost have all happened in the past five years.
In 2018, more than 1,350,000 hectares of land were hit by fires, with the most devastating fires being in the central and northern Interior. And in 2017 fires burned more than 1,210,000 hectares, with the most destructive blaze being the Elephant Hill wildfire that started near Ashcroft.
B.C. has been in a provincial state of emergency for a full month as of today. That declaration was made on July 20, after weeks of local residents in the Interior calling for that move to be made.
Wildfire season got off to a much earlier start than normal in B.C.’s Interior, during the historic “heat dome” in late June, with the massive Sparks Lake and McKay Creek wildfires breaking out one day apart, on June 28 and June 29 respectively.
As of August 19, there have been 1,535 wildfires reported this season. Of those, the six largest fires have burned just under 437,000 hectares land, or more than half of all of the land lost this year. Those are the Sparks Lake fire, the Lytton Creek fire, the White Rock Lake fire, the Flat Lake fire, the Tremont Creek fire and the McKay Creek fire.
Among the six largest fires, only one has been deemed as lightning caused according to the BC Wildfire Service: the Flat Lake fire.
Unlike the 2017 and 2018 fire seasons, there has been loss of life from wildfires in B.C. this year. Two people, a married couple, were killed in Lytton by the Lytton Creek fire shortly after it broke out.
Comparisons on structure losses are not immediately available, but 2021 is likely one of the worst years on record for that as well; an exact number is not clear but structure losses will be in the hundreds.
The Village of Lytton was largely destroyed by fire on June 30, many homes burned in Monte Lake and Paxton Valley on August 5 and, on August 15, fire tore through the neighbourhoods of Killiney Beach and Ewing’s Landing and part of the Okanagan Indian Band. Other structure losses have been reported on different dates in various locations, including structures lost northwest of Kamloops from the Sparks Lake fire in late June and early July.
NEW: 2021 is now BC’s third-worst wildfire season on record for amount of land burned. Fires have now burned more than 858,000 hectares this year.
The years with most land burned now goes:
2018: 1,354,000 hectares
2017: 1,216,000
2021: 858,294 (and counting)
1958: 855,968 pic.twitter.com/7ZX5aZrpOp— Colton Davies (@ColtonDavies_) August 20, 2021