A category-two fire ban will be brought into effect on Monday for the Cariboo Fire Centre.

BC Wildfire Service information officer Erin Bull says a category-two ban doesn’t include campfires but does include slash burning, grass fire, and the use of a number of items.

“Any open fires larger than 0.5 metres wide by 0.5 metres high are prohibited. So anything larger than a campfire you won’t be allowed to burn. The use of fireworks, firecrackers, tiki torches, binary exploding targets, burn barrels, burn cages, air curtain burners, those are also all prohibited as well.”

She says the fire risk is increasing but there has still been very minimal fire activity in the Cariboo Fire Centre.

“So far this year there have been 29 human-caused fires and 16 lightning-caused fires. So far, over the last 10 years, this is a slower year so far at this stage.”

The Cariboo Fire Centre is stationed in Williams Lake and also includes Quesnel, Clinton, Wells Gray Provincial Park to the east and Tweedsmuir Provincial Park to the west.

Meanwhile, in the Kamloops Fire Centre, a category-two ban has been in place now for about six weeks, and campfires are still permitted.