Wildfire crews again asking people to stop flying drones in fire zones

Multiple times so far this summer, the BC Wildfire Service has issued public pleas asking people to stop flying drones near active wildfires.

Monday evening, BCWS sent out a tweet saying aerial firefighting operations in the Bulkley Valley Fire Zone had to be temporarily suspended because someone was using a drone in the area.

The province has also used social media to ask people to stop pulling over at the side of highways to take pictures and video of wildfires.

“Public interference is a huge risk for the public as well as for our crews who are responding,” said Fire Information Officer Sarah Budd. “And it can slow down our response efforts, so it’s just bad on all sides.”

HUNDREDS OF FIRES RAGE OUT OF CONTROL 

As of Monday evening, 381 active fires were burning in the province – and 259 of those are classified as out of control.

More than 70 evacuation orders and alerts are in place for various communities.

There is some rain in the forecast for the hard, hot north east corner of the province, but it will be coming with thunderstorms and possible lightning strikes.

"So, it’s pick your poison. You need some precipitation of course, but you don’t want to have too many more wildfire starts on a landscape that’s already riddled with so many,” said Armel Castallan, a warning preparedness meteorologist with Environment Canada.

MORE INTERNATIONAL AID ON THE WAY

About 180 firefighters from the United States, Mexico and Australia are working alongside 2,000 BCWS personnel on the front lines.

BCWS said it expects another 1,000 international reinforcements to arrive soon.

That’s in addition to members of the Canadian Armed Forces who are being deployed as well.

“As they’re not trained firefighters, they wouldn’t ever be put in a position to be doing anything like direct response,” Budd said about the military members.

Of the 891 wildfires burning across the country, more than 40 per cent of them are in B.C.