SMITHERS – Effective at 12:00 (noon) Pacific Daylight Time today, Friday, June 27, 2025, Category 2 and Category 3 open fires are prohibited across the entire Northwest Fire Centre. This includes the Nadina Forest District, the Coast Mountain Forest District and the Skeena Stikine Forest District. This prohibition does not ban Category 1 campfires.
A Category 2 open fire is a fire that burns:
- material in one pile not exceeding 2 metres in height and 3 metres in width
- material concurrently in 2 piles, each not exceeding 2 metres in height and 3 metres in width
- stubble or grass over an area that does not exceed 0.2 hectares (2,000 square metres)
A Category 3 open fire is a fire that burns:
- material concurrently in three or more piles, each not exceeding 2 metres in height and 3 metres in width,
- material in one or more piles each exceeding 2 metres in height or 3 metres in width
- one or more windrows each not exceeding 200 metres in length or 15 metres in width
- stubble or grass over an area exceeding 0.2 hectares
In addition to Category 2 and Category 3 open fires, the following activities will also be prohibited:
- binary exploding targets
- fireworks, as defined in the Fireworks Act of BC
- burn barrels or burn cages of any size or description
- controlled air incinerators
- air curtain burners
- carbonizers
For more information on open burning, including a description of each category of burn, please click here. Please view a map of the affected areas below.
This prohibition applies to all areas that are outside of municipal boundaries. In addition, this prohibition applies to the following types of Crown land within municipal boundaries:
- parks, conservancies and recreation areas (Park Act)
- recreation sites, recreation trails, interpretive forest sites and trail-based recreation areas (Forest and Range Practices Act)
- ecological reserves (Ecological Reserve Act)
- wildlife management areas (Wildlife Act)
- private managed forest land (Private Managed Forest Land Act)
This prohibition also applies to the Village of Hazelton and the District of Stewart.
Municipalities may align with BC Wildfire Service prohibitions or impose their own prohibitions based on local conditions. If you are within a municipality, be sure to check if local prohibitions are in place. If you are within a regional district or improvement district, this prohibition applies as well as any local prohibition issued by the regional district or improvement district. BC Parks follows BC Wildfire Service prohibitions.
Anyone conducting a Category 2 or Category 3 open fire within these regions must extinguish any such fire by 12:00 (noon) PDT, June 27, 2025. This prohibition will remain in place until 12:00 (noon) PDT, September 29, 2025, or until the public is otherwise notified.
Offences and fines
Anyone found in contravention of an open fire prohibition may be issued a ticket for $1,150, required to pay an administrative penalty of $10,000, or, if convicted in court, fined up to $100,000 and/or sentenced for up to one year in jail.
If your fire causes or contributes to a wildfire, you may be fined up to $1 million and/or sentenced to up to three years in jail, as well as be responsible for all firefighting and associated costs. More information about the Wildfire Act and Regulation is available here.
Report a wildfire
The Northwest Fire Centre would like to thank the public for its continuing help in preventing wildfires. To report a wildfire call 1-800-663-5555 toll-free or *5555 on a cell phone. For up-to-date information on current wildfire activity and prohibitions visit www.bcwildfire.ca
Stay informed
You can follow the latest wildfire news on:
- the free BC Wildfire Service public mobile app, available for Apple (iOS) and Android devices, and
- on Facebook at: http://facebook.com/BCForestFireInfo.
Contact:
BC Wildfire Service
Information Officer
Northwest Fire Centre
BCWS.NWFCInfo@gov.bc.ca
250-876-6844
Connect with the Province of B.C. at www.gov.bc.ca/connect