PARKSVILLE – Effective at 12 p.m. (noon) PDT on Thursday, July 17, 2025, campfires will be prohibited throughout the Coastal Fire Centre, excluding the Haida Gwaii Forest District and the portion of the Central Coast Regional District that falls within the North Island Central Coast Forest District. This prohibition is being enacted to help prevent human caused wildfires and protect public safety.
Category 2 and Category 3 open fire prohibitions remain in place for the Coastal Fire Centre’s jurisdiction, with the exception that Category 2 open fires will be allowed in the Haida Gwaii Forest District. To learn more about the different categories of open burning, visit the Open fire and safer burning webpage.
These prohibitions will be in place until October 31, 2025, or until the order is rescinded.
This prohibition applies to all areas in the Fire Centre that are outside of municipal boundaries.
In addition, this prohibition applies to the following types of 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)
Municipalities often follow BC Wildfire Service prohibitions or may impose different prohibitions based on conditions in their local area. If you are in 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 local authority.
In addition to open fires being prohibited, the following activities and equipment are also restricted in most areas:
- Fireworks; as defined in the Fireworks Act
- Binary Exploding Targets
- Sky Lanterns
- Wood fired hot tubs, wood fired pizza ovens and other wood fired devices unless vented through a structure that has a flue and is incorporated in a building
- Burn Barrels or Burn Cages of any size or description
- Controlled air incinerators
- Air curtain burners
- Carbonizers
Please review the full list of prohibited activities and equipment in your area here.
This prohibition does not include the use of outdoor stoves. As per the Wildfire Regulation, an outdoor stove is a CSA-rated or ULC-rated device used outdoors for cooking, heat or ambiance that burns charcoal briquettes, liquid fuel or gaseous fuel, and has a flame height that is less than 15 cm tall.
Open fire is the largest cause of human-caused fires provincially. Human-caused wildfires are entirely preventable and may divert crucial resources from naturally occurring and/or existing wildfires. Prohibitions are a useful tool used to reduce the likelihood of more human-caused fires in anticipation of increased lightning-caused fires or during critical fire situations.
Offences and fines
Anyone found in contravention of an open fire prohibition may be issued a violation ticket for $1,150, required to pay an administrative penalty of up to $10,000 or, if convicted in court, fined up to $100,000 and/or sentenced to one year in jail. If the contravention causes or contributes to a wildfire, the person responsible may be ordered to pay all firefighting and associated costs.
The Coastal Fire Centre covers all the area west of the height of land on the Coast Mountain Range from the U.S.-Canada border at Manning Park, including Tweedsmuir South Provincial Park in the north, the Sunshine Coast, the Lower Mainland, Vancouver Island, the Gulf Islands and Haida Gwaii.
Report a wildfire
Be safe this summer and always report smoke, wildfire and unattended campfires.
The public is one of our greatest resources when it comes to reporting wildfires. Approximately 40% of wildfires are reported by members of the public. There are a number of ways to report:
- Call 1-800-663-5555 toll-free
- Call *5555 from a cell phone
- Submit directly through the BC Wildfire Service mobile app
Stay informed
Make a plan before you go, and check for:
Stay up-to-date on the latest BC Wildfire news on:
- X (formerly Twitter)
- YouTube
- The BC Wildfire Service mobile app (download it now on Apple or Android!)
Contact:
Information Officer
Coastal Fire Centre
250-951-4209