The Kamloops Fire Centre will ban all Category 2 fires starting Friday, June 13.
The region has already put in place a ban on the larger Category 3 fires.
The BC Wildfire Service said the prohibition, which also bans people from using fireworks, sky lanterns, binary exploding targets, burn barrels/cages of any size or description and air curtain burners, is being enacted for the Kamloops Fire Centre to help prevent human-caused wildfires and to protect public safety.
The fire ban currently does not include Category 1 campfires that are a half-metre high by a high-metre wide or smaller. Nor does it apply to cooking stoves that use gas, propane or briquettes.
A Category 2 open fire is a fire that burns:
• material in one pile not exceeding two metres in height and three metres in width;
• material concurrently in two piles each not exceeding two m in height and three m in width; or
• stubble or grass over an area that does not exceed 0.2 hectares.
A category 3 open fire is one that burns:
• material concurrently in three or more piles each not exceeding two m in height and three m in width;
• material in one or more piles each exceeding two m in height or three m in width,
• one or more windrows, each not exceeding 200 m in length or 15 m in width,
• stubble or grass over an area exceeding 0.2 ha.
Anyone conducting Category 2 open fires within the Kamloops Fire Centre’s jurisdiction must extinguish those fires by noon on June 13.
While the ban does not apply to municipal land, outside of parks located within municipal boundaries, most municipalities follow the fire centre in issuing their own bans.
To report a wildfire, unattended campfire or open burning violation, call 1-800-663-5555 toll-free or *5555 on a cell phone.
