SMITHERS – Effective at 12 p.m. (noon) PDT on Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2025, there were changes to some of the open burning prohibitions in the Northwest Fire Centre. Category 2 open fire prohibitions have been rescinded across the entire Northwest Fire Centre. Category 3 open burning prohibitions have been partially rescinded.
Specifically, the prohibition for Category 3 open burning has been rescinded in the Skeena Fire Zone and the Cassiar Fire Zone, which includes the Coast Mountain Forest District and the Stikine portion of the Skeena Stikine Forest District.
Category 3 open burning remains prohibited in the Nadina Fire Zone and the Bulkley Fire Zone, which includes the Nadina Forest District and the Skeena portion of the Skeena Stikine Forest District.
These prohibitions will remain in place until 12 p.m. (noon) PDT on Oct. 17, 2025, or until the public is otherwise notified.
Please view a map of the affected areas below.
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, or
- stubble or grass over an area exceeding 0.2 hectares.
The 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); and
- private managed forest land (Private Managed Forest Land Act).
This prohibition also applies to the Village of Hazelton.
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 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.
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