Firefighters battling B.C.'s wildfires are bracing themselves for the hottest week of the summer next week during a wildfire season that's already seen an expansive area burned.
Officials say that it's not the number of fires that make this year's fire season stand out, but the number of hectares in the province that have been burned. The season is nowhere close to being finished, and 426,000 hectares across the province have already been scorched.
Summer 2017 sits behind only 1961 and 1952 when it comes to land area burned.
"Regardless of how we look at it, that hectares number is going to be historically significant," BC Wildfire Service chief information officer Kevin Skrepnek said at a media conference call Sunday afternoon.
Skrepnek is concerned the coming week will make the wildfire situation worse. There's no rain on in the foreseeable future for the southern half of the province, and temperatures are threatening to reach 40C in the Central and Southern Interior.
There's also no lightning in the forecast—so any new fires will be the result of human activity, Skrepnek says.
He's urging those using off-roading vehicles not to go in tall grass and to make sure their vehicles are clean. That's because fast-moving ATVs can start fires when they zip through dry vegetation.
