2017 British Columbia wildfires

2017 British Columbia wildfires
Date(s)Evacuations:
July 6, 2017 – September 20, 2017[1]
Provincial state of emergency: July 7, 2017 – September 15, 2017
LocationBritish Columbia, Canada
Statistics
Burned area1,216,053[2] hectares (3,004,930 acres) as of December 5, 2017[2]
Land useForest and residential
Impacts
Deaths0
Non-fatal injuriesUnknown
Structures destroyed444
DamageOver $649,000,000
Ignition
CauseLightning and Human-Caused
Motiveunknown
Season
2018 →
Ashcroft Reserve wildfire burning at Loon Lake, BC

On July 6, 2017, a two-hectare wildfire began west of 100 Mile House, British Columbia, Canada marking the beginning of the record-breaking 2017 wildfire season in British Columbia.[3] On July 7, 56 new fires started throughout British Columbia (BC) leading to several evacuation alerts, orders and the declaration of a provincial state of emergency by the Government of British Columbia.[4] By September 12, 158 fires were burning throughout the province.[5] A total of 12,161 square kilometres (1.2 million hectares) had burned by the end of the 2017 fire season, the largest total area burned in a fire season in recorded history (1.3% of BC total area).[6] This record was broken the following year, with five of BC's worst 10 fire seasons occurring since 2010.[6] However, the 2017 fire season was also notable for the largest number of total evacuees in a fire season (65,000 people),[7] as well as for the largest single fire ever in British Columbia.[8] Research indicates that human-caused climate change played a significant role in the fires.[7]

  1. ^ Dyck, Darryl (September 20, 2017). "B.C. begins recovery as all wildfire alerts, evacuation orders lifted". Phillip Crawley. The Globe and Mail Inc. Retrieved December 15, 2017.
  2. ^ a b "Current Statistics".
  3. ^ "A timeline of B.C. wildfires". Prince George Citizen. 2017-07-14. Retrieved 2017-08-14.
  4. ^ "Provincial state of emergency declared". news.gov.bc.ca. 2017-07-07. Retrieved 2017-08-14.
  5. ^ "FACTSHEET: B.C. wildfires – Quick stats". news.gov.bc.ca. Government of British Columbia. 2017-08-13. Archived from the original on 2017-08-09. Retrieved 2017-08-14.
  6. ^ a b "2018 now worst fire season on record as B.C. extends state of emergency | CBC News".
  7. ^ a b Kirchmeier‐Young, M. C.; Gillett, N. P.; Zwiers, F. W.; Cannon, A. J.; Anslow, F. S. (December 13, 2018). "Attribution of the Influence of Human-Induced Climate Change on an Extreme Fire Season". Earth's Future. 7 (1): 2–10. doi:10.1029/2018EF001050. ISSN 2328-4277. PMC 9285568. PMID 35860503.
  8. ^ "B.C. surpasses worst wildfire season on record — and threat is far from over". CBC News. Retrieved 2017-08-18.