Fires have destroyed more than one million hectares across British Columbia since the wildfire season began on April 1.
As of Aug. 20, a total of 1,525 wildfires in the province had burned 1,009,806 hectares, according to the BC Wildfire Service.
In terms of land burned, this year is the fourth worst on record in British Columbia.
In 2023, the worst fire season recorded, fires destroyed 2,857,878 hectares, more than double the fire damage in any other year.
Firefighting costs in 2023 came in at $1.0948 billion, the highest amount on record.
Previously, 2018 saw 1,354,284 hectares destroyed, at a cost of $615 million. The previous year, wildfires burned 1,216,053 hectares. The costs of firefighting efforts that year were $649 million.
So far this year, the vast majority of the province’s wildfire damage has been in the Prince George Fire Centre’s coverage area, in northeastern British Columbia, where 775,435 hectares have been burned. This is several times greater than the wildfire damage in all other areas of the province combined.
Lightning has been the cause of 1,117 wildfires so far this year, or 73 per cent of the fires recorded. Another 356 fires, or 23 per cent have been human caused. The cause of the remaining 52 wildfires is undetermined.
