April is the start of wildfire season for the Prince George Fire Centre, and they’re reminding everyone to be cautious this time of year.
Fire Information Officer, Karley Desrosiers said we’re currently in a time known as “spring dip”, which is after the snow has melted but before vegetation has begun to green up, making for more dead grass and leaves.
Desrosiers added that this makes for a higher wildfire risk for the month.
“We’ll see a period where things do green up and more moisture generally from May and June rain before we get into what we consider the core wildfire season, which is generally June, July, August, and sometimes September.”
“At the moment, we are seeing a bit of an uptick in wildfire activity. Generally we do see an increase number of fires in April, and often in the spring they are generally human caused.”
Desrosiers said the biggest factor going into the wildfire season is the precipitation as we remain in a multi-year ongoing drought.
As of April 1st, which is considered the start of wildfire season, there have been five fires to date in the PG Fire Centre.
She noted to not do backyard burns or agricultural burning as this weekend is forecast to have winds up to 70 kilometres an hour.
When conditions are favourable for a burn, Desrosiers said to always keep an eye on the forecast, make sure there are tools on hand to extinguish that fire, never leave it unattended, have adequate water nearby, and not leaving until the fire is cool to the touch.
She added it doesn’t take much wind to cause a small fire to grow rapidly when vegetation is this dry.
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