B.C. saw nearly 10K lightning strikes in a week, officials say in wildfire update

A helicopter battles the Shetland Creek wildfire on Sunday, July 21, 2024. (BC Wildfire Service)

Over the past week, lightning struck nearly 10,000 times across B.C., officials said in an update on the province’s wildfire situation Tuesday.

The strikes were predominantly in the province’s southern Interior, in the Kamloops and Southeast fire centres, regions that are currently bearing the brunt of new wildfire starts and fires of note.

Firefighters are being sent to about 12 to 24 new blazes every day, and that trend is predicted to continue into this week, said Cliff Champman, director of wildfire operations for the BC Wildfire Service.

Over the next seven days, temperatures across the province are forecast to return to more seasonal norms.

“Which is great for us from a response perspective, but still doesn't give that weather that we need to really knock down the hazard and knock down the susceptibility to new fire starts,” he said.

The BCWS says warm and dry conditions will persist, and there’s potential for more lightning over the next 36 to 48 hours.

“So, still lots of August to go, still lots of potential out there,” Chapman said.

However, some relief is coming for the communities close to some of the biggest fires. Over the past day, a number of evacuation alerts have been lifted as the danger subsides.

Near Golden, an evacuation alert was rescinded for 720 properties near the Dogtooth FSR wildfire that burned four homes in July. And 36 properties near the Dunn Creek wildfire have also been given the all-clear.

In the Venables Valley, part of the area burning in the massive Shetland Creek Wildfire, an evacuation order covering 57 properties was downgraded to an alert.

Still, approximately 1,000 British Columbians are effected by evacuation orders, and 2,500 are on alert, said Emergency Management Minister Bowinn Ma.

As of Tuesday afternoon, there were 346 wildfires burning in B.C., 36 of which started in the past 24 hours. Just under 40 per cent were out of control. The vast majority of active fires, 92 per cent, were caused by lightning.

Comparing fire seasons

At this time last year, B.C. was in the midst of the worst wildfire season in history, which would ultimately burn more than 2.8 million hectares of land, force several thousand people from their homes, and prompt a province-wide state of emergency for almost a month.

When comparing where B.C. is now to the first week of August 2023, there have been 580 fewer fire starts so far. And there are currently eight wildfires of note—ones that pose a potential threat to public safety—compared to 12 at this time last year.

In terms of area burned so far, this year’s fire season—about 910,000 hectares—is far behind that of 2023, when over 1.5 million hectares burned by the first week of August. However, the number of hectares burned in 2024 is nearly triple the average over the last 10 years, which is around 350,000.

“We do expect it to be warm and dry most August in B.C., but our fire season started four months ago, and we've been active since, and we expect it to go into September like we've seen in five of the last seven years,” Chapman said.

“We need to make sure that we're really focusing on this hazard of wildfire for the province of B.C. 365 days a year.”