Campers fined for defying fire ban even after B.C. declared state of emergency

A campfire is seen in an image shared by the B.C. Conservation Officer Service.

Even amid a provincial state of emergency that has seen tens of thousands forced to flee their homes due to wildfires, people in B.C. are defying a ban on campfires.

The BC Conservation Officer Service said Monday, in a social media post, that seven tickets were handed out over the weekend totalling a combined $8,050.

Those fines were handed down after Premier David Eby declared the provincial state of emergency Friday night, as fires exploded and the number of people under evacuation order and alert rose rapidly.

The campfire ban is in place across the southern half of the province and is meant to reduce the risk of human-caused fires amid what has already been a record-breaking season for wildfire destruction in B.C. and beyond.

Even if the number of human-caused blazes is relatively low or minor, officials have stressed that tinder-dry conditions have elevated the risk of fires igniting and spreading rapidly and that preventing these fires is a way to ease the strain on resources.

As of Monday afternoon, there are 374 active fires in B.C. Of those, 21 are human-caused and 39 have causes that remain under investigation.