Northwest Fire Centre urging caution with warmer weather arriving

The warm temperatures of the last week have given the Northwest Fire Centre cause to do some early education on the dangers of open burning, with officials encouraging the public to exercise caution with any outdoor burning activities this spring.

Noting that the spring season offers up dead grass and other vegetation which can provide the fuel for wildfires that are spread quickly as wind conditions pick up.

Key to any plans for an open burn in the region is the need to first check with local fire department or municipal officials and for those planning a large scale industrial burn, getting a burn registration number is required by contacting 1-888-797-1717

The province has also introduced a new fine structure today part of a tougher stand to protect communities across British Columbia from wildfire risk.

More on the early season advisories as well as precautions that area residents and visitors can make use of can be found here.

The Ministry of Forests Lands and Natural Resources has developed a poster that provides a helpful guide to Open Fire Regulations in the Province, you can review it below (click to expand)

The Northwest Fire Centre offers updated information on wildfire situations through its twitter feed and Facebook page.

The early spring alerts are timely one, already there have been two new wildfires reported, both of them in the Cariboo region of the province. Both fires are believed to have been human-caused.

Items of note from the Northwest Fire Centre can be found on our archive page here.