Think you can have a campfire during a fire ban in the Sea to Sky? Well, think again.
Over the first long weekend since campfire bans came into effect, Conservation Officers (COs) issued $18,400 worth of fines to recreationalists in the corridor who flouted the no-fire rules.
COs handed out 16 tickets across the three days in the Sea to Sky with the Squamish Valley being the number one hotspot for illegal fires.
Conservation officer Calvin Rochon told The Squamish Chief there were a few different locations where people tried to have fires without being caught.
“I won't go into detailed specifics, but a lot of them [were] down the Squamish Valley. We're seeing a lot of non-compliance down there, as well as up in Pemberton, in the In-SHUCK-ch and some at up the Mamquam,” Rochon said.
“But the main concentration would be the Squamish Valley.”
As for the reasons why recreators thought it was okay to have illegal fires during a Category 5 (or extreme) danger rating, Rochon said it came down to ignorance.
“It's kind of a wide range of excuses, going from ignorance to the fire ban all the way to just thinking they wouldn't get caught, to be honest, and just using it for food and for warmth,” he said.
Rochon said that Aug. 1 was the day with the most tickets handed out across the long weekend.
The BC Wildfire Service prohibition for the Coastal Fire Centre, which includes the corridor, went into effect on July 17.
The campfire ban went into effect within the District of Squamish as of June 10.
How much is a fine for illegal campfires?
According to Rochon, the baseline ticket for “light, fuel or use fire against restriction” is $1,150.
“That's for just using a fire during a fire ban, no matter the size of it,” he said.
“If it is an egregiously large fire, officers can use discretion to stack other sections of The Wildfire Act to go a bit higher if needed.”
Be smart
Despite the rainy weather across the Sea to Sky this week, Rochon is urging recreators not to assume it is safe to have a fire.
“People tend to think, with a little bit of rain, that the forest will get nice and wet and not have any risk of fire, but it is still quite dry out there, just the immediate depth layer,” he said.
“If you just go kick the ground, you can see how dry it is still underneath, and all of the fuel does not get nearly wet enough under the canopy until there's a very large volume of rain.
“That's not for us to decide, that is for the wildfire guys to decide when it is wet enough, but we're not even close to that yet.”
He said that the conservation office is urging people to make themselves aware of the campfire restrictions and to follow the rules that go along with them, because “it is an expensive fine” if you are caught doing the wrong thing.
“If there was a fire to go in the Sea to Sky or anywhere in the province, and there's an investigation done on it, if the people found responsible for the fire are actually found responsible for the fire, they can be on the hook for the large penalties for the fire suppression, which can get up to hundreds of thousands of dollars,” he said.
According to the BC Wildfire Service website, “if your fire causes or contributes to a wildfire, you may be fined up to $1 million and/or sentenced to up to three years in jail, as well as be responsible for all firefighting and associated costs.”
For information on the campfire ban in the Sea to Sky, visit the BC Wildfire Service website.
