{"id":30872,"date":"2026-09-11T11:29:56","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T18:29:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.gov.bc.ca\/bcwildfire\/?p=30872"},"modified":"2026-09-11T11:29:56","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T18:29:56","slug":"category-3-open-fire-prohibition-rescind-in-the-northwest-fire-centre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.gov.bc.ca\/bcwildfire\/category-3-open-fire-prohibition-rescind-in-the-northwest-fire-centre\/","title":{"rendered":"Category 3 open fire prohibition rescind in the Northwest Fire Centre"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>SMITHERS \u2013 Effective at 12 p.m. (noon) PDT on Saturday, September 12, 2026, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www2.gov.bc.ca\/gov\/content\/safety\/wildfire-status\/prevention\/fire-bans-and-restrictions\/open-burning?utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=Changes-to-open-burning-prohibitions-in-the-Northwest-Fire-C&amp;utm_source=Envoke-Information-Bulletin&amp;utm_term=Changes-to-open-burning-prohibitions-in-the-Northwest-Fire-C#Cat3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Category 3<\/a><\/strong> open burning will be permitted throughout the Northwest Fire Centre. This change means that there will be no open fire prohibitions in place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Category 3 open fire refers to<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Any fire larger than 2 metres high by 3 metres wide<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Three or more concurrently burning piles, each no larger than 2 metres high by 3 metres wide<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The burning of stubble or grass over an area greater than 0.2 hectares<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The burning of one or more windrows<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Anyone wishing to light a Category 3 open fire must obtain a burn registration number ahead of time by calling 1-888-797-1717. A burn registration number is not required for a Category 2 open fire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In addition to <a href=\"https:\/\/can01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fe1.envoke.com%2Fext%2Fclick%2Fgo%2Fcd9c027cc919cff110a615ccfdf58a6b%2F1680d6617ccb788bd106aa1ccceabe0e%2Ffbea4bd8c9921c951692821604e1dadd&amp;data=05%7C02%7CFIREINFO%40gov.bc.ca%7C5c6e3bb6df174511d35708df10296cc2%7C6fdb52003d0d4a8ab036d3685e359adc%7C0%7C0%7C639247442234754557%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&amp;sdata=rsJu%2FsYokp9IrvR3AxtVxVyPbeyCNRgwk1yNSzIqYtE%3D&amp;reserved=0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Category 3<\/a> open fires, the following equipment and activities will once again be permitted:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Air curtain burners<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Carbonizers<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Municipalities may align with BC Wildfire Service prohibitions or impose their own prohibitions based on local conditions. Check with your local government or other jurisdictional authorities before lighting a fire of any size and abide by any bylaws or restrictions that are in place in your area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It is each individuals responsibility to ensure that burning is done safely, in accordance with regulations. For more information about open burning, visit the <a href=\"https:\/\/can01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fe1.envoke.com%2Fext%2Fclick%2Fgo%2Ffaa453df8cbc47189fe615cd255921aa%2F60fc49e2766b60f84c369d7e59dcf1cc%2F81f57574e4e32c72b63d2f2e6e5bb86d&amp;data=05%7C02%7CFIREINFO%40gov.bc.ca%7C5c6e3bb6df174511d35708df10296cc2%7C6fdb52003d0d4a8ab036d3685e359adc%7C0%7C0%7C639247442234764391%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&amp;sdata=I5PwCaQRku9f3QplGNVFZoPgVjannd9iQWONlU7v7w8%3D&amp;reserved=0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">open fire and safer burning webpage<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>All open burning must comply with the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bclaws.gov.bc.ca\/civix\/document\/id\/complete\/statreg\/11_38_2005?utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=Category-2-open-fire-prohibition-rescinded-in-the-Northwest-&amp;utm_source=Envoke-Information-Bulletin&amp;utm_term=Category-2-open-fire-prohibition-rescinded-in-the-Northwest-#section21\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><u>Wildfire Act<\/u><\/a>, Environmental Management Act and Open Burning Smoke Control Regulation. Anyone conducting an open burn must check local venting conditions prior to lighting a fire, understand what smoke sensitivity zone the burn site is in, and meet all other obligations associated with these regulations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Venting index and smoke sensitivity zone information is available by calling 1 888 281-2992 or visiting the <a href=\"https:\/\/can01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fe1.envoke.com%2Fext%2Fclick%2Fgo%2Fcd9c027cc919cff110a615ccfdf58a6b%2F51e130b15430f26136f6a6931de457b2%2F03f6ab92aad4f54f11e67852ff4209cd&amp;data=05%7C02%7CFIREINFO%40gov.bc.ca%7C5c6e3bb6df174511d35708df10296cc2%7C6fdb52003d0d4a8ab036d3685e359adc%7C0%7C0%7C639247442234774438%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&amp;sdata=zmIHt0AG%2BEQ7Htic3MjruYMEDXu1bx6EevMUuUs%2B%2B44%3D&amp;reserved=0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><u>text ventilation index<\/u><\/a> or the <a href=\"https:\/\/can01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fe1.envoke.com%2Fext%2Fclick%2Fgo%2Fcd9c027cc919cff110a615ccfdf58a6b%2Ff88a0538533404425426a6931de4d028%2F03f6ab92aad4f54f11e67852ff4209cd&amp;data=05%7C02%7CFIREINFO%40gov.bc.ca%7C5c6e3bb6df174511d35708df10296cc2%7C6fdb52003d0d4a8ab036d3685e359adc%7C0%7C0%7C639247442234783970%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&amp;sdata=VcYhVM%2FiBJaH2zFGcTcZRU%2B8mm%2FLv%2B6k2PrL%2FIcLBRs%3D&amp;reserved=0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><u>venting index interactive map<\/u><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Report open burning violations through the RAPP Line: 1-877-952-7277<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Stay in the know<\/strong><br>For the latest information on current wildfire activity, prohibitions and restrictions, road closures, and air-quality advisories please visit <a href=\"https:\/\/www2.gov.bc.ca\/gov\/content\/safety\/wildfire-status?utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=25-Rx-Burn-Central---Westridge&amp;utm_source=Envoke-IB---Central-Zone&amp;utm_term=Information-Bulletin%3A-Prescribed-burn-planned-near-Westridge\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">BCWildfire.ca<\/a>, or the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/can01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FBCForestFireInfo%2F%3Futm_medium%3Demail%26utm_campaign%3D25-Rx-Burn-Chilcotin---Highway-20-2.0%26utm_source%3DEnvoke-IB---Chilcotin%26utm_term%3DInformation-Bulletin%253A-Prescribed-burn-planned-along-Highway-&amp;data=05%7C02%7CFIREINFO%40gov.bc.ca%7C5c6e3bb6df174511d35708df10296cc2%7C6fdb52003d0d4a8ab036d3685e359adc%7C0%7C0%7C639247442234793290%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&amp;sdata=Tnas4MJ2TxcGwHF0W2J6vFB4k%2FpiNFdmmoSEZUDPQNs%3D&amp;reserved=0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Facebook<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/can01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.instagram.com%2Fbcgovfireinfo%2F%3Futm_medium%3Demail%26utm_campaign%3D25-Rx-Burn-Chilcotin---Highway-20-2.0%26utm_source%3DEnvoke-IB---Chilcotin%26utm_term%3DInformation-Bulletin%253A-Prescribed-burn-planned-along-Highway-&amp;data=05%7C02%7CFIREINFO%40gov.bc.ca%7C5c6e3bb6df174511d35708df10296cc2%7C6fdb52003d0d4a8ab036d3685e359adc%7C0%7C0%7C639247442234802521%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&amp;sdata=gcZZs%2FYEspOjGYYVKOMVo598p2WAeUqi%2Bke3by%2B%2Feco%3D&amp;reserved=0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Instagram<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>BC Wildfire App: available for <a href=\"https:\/\/can01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fapps.apple.com%2Fca%2Fapp%2Fbc-wildfire-service%2Fid1477675008%3Futm_medium%3Demail%26utm_campaign%3D25-Rx-Burn-Central---Westridge%26utm_source%3DEnvoke-IB---Central-Zone%26utm_term%3DInformation-Bulletin%253A-Prescribed-burn-planned-near-Westridge&amp;data=05%7C02%7CFIREINFO%40gov.bc.ca%7C5c6e3bb6df174511d35708df10296cc2%7C6fdb52003d0d4a8ab036d3685e359adc%7C0%7C0%7C639247442234811939%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&amp;sdata=om0jEptqKSBwnIieIKSt2YfDcK4A906LQ1e2b5h%2BG0g%3D&amp;reserved=0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Apple<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/can01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fplay.google.com%2Fstore%2Fapps%2Fdetails%3Fid%3Dca.bc.gov.WildfireInformation%26hl%3Den_CA%26utm_medium%3Demail%26utm_campaign%3D25-Rx-Burn-Central---Westridge%26utm_source%3DEnvoke-IB---Central-Zone%26utm_term%3DInformation-Bulletin%253A-Prescribed-burn-planned-near-Westridge&amp;data=05%7C02%7CFIREINFO%40gov.bc.ca%7C5c6e3bb6df174511d35708df10296cc2%7C6fdb52003d0d4a8ab036d3685e359adc%7C0%7C0%7C639247442234821249%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&amp;sdata=LihpgdvDQeZ3eLj3SbgV9e30vpITtLyV7S24z1BGtBY%3D&amp;reserved=0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Android<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Contact:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>BC Wildfire Service<br>Information Officer<br>Northwest Fire Centre<br><a href=\"mailto:BCWS.NWFCInfo@gov.bc.ca\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">BCWS.NWFCInfo@gov.bc.ca<\/a><br>250-876-6844<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Connect with the Province of B.C. at <a href=\"https:\/\/can01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com\/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.gov.bc.ca%2Fconnect%3Futm_medium%3Demail%26utm_campaign%3DCategory-3-open-fire-prohibition-rescinded-in-the-Northwest-%26utm_source%3DEnvoke-Envoke%26utm_term%3DCategory-3-open-fire-prohibition-rescinded-in-the-Northwest-&amp;data=05%7C02%7CFIREINFO%40gov.bc.ca%7C5c6e3bb6df174511d35708df10296cc2%7C6fdb52003d0d4a8ab036d3685e359adc%7C0%7C0%7C639247442234830586%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&amp;sdata=E%2FOtOKEHyq6lZ1ohdD4ygaRKbcC5QmjFpfLnjv%2F8aqc%3D&amp;reserved=0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">www.gov.bc.ca\/connect<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SMITHERS \u2013 Effective at 12 p.m. (noon) PDT on Saturday, September 12, 2026, Category 3 open burning will be permitted throughout the Northwest Fire Centre. This change means that there will be no open fire prohibitions in place. Category 3 open fire refers to: Anyone wishing to light a Category 3 open fire must obtain &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.gov.bc.ca\/bcwildfire\/category-3-open-fire-prohibition-rescind-in-the-northwest-fire-centre\/\">Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5738,"featured_media":23902,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[543,72,32],"class_list":["post-30872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-information-bulletins","tag-app","tag-nwfc","tag-prevention"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.gov.bc.ca\/bcwildfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.gov.bc.ca\/bcwildfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.gov.bc.ca\/bcwildfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.gov.bc.ca\/bcwildfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5738"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.gov.bc.ca\/bcwildfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30872"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.gov.bc.ca\/bcwildfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30872\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30881,"href":"https:\/\/blog.gov.bc.ca\/bcwildfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30872\/revisions\/30881"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.gov.bc.ca\/bcwildfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.gov.bc.ca\/bcwildfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.gov.bc.ca\/bcwildfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.gov.bc.ca\/bcwildfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}