The BC Wildfire Service has released some stats comparing this year’s wildfire season to the one we saw in 2017.
There are a larger number of wildfires this year, with fire crews responding to 810 of them across the province since April 1st, compared to the average of 762 fires for this time of the year.
On the other hand, 56,415 hectares have been burned so far, a fraction of the 377,800 hectares burned at this time in 2017.
The average number of hectares burned during wildfire season in BC is 107,266 hectares.
The 2017 wildfires burned over 12 million hectares and destroyed hundreds of structures, causing several evacuations, as well as a Provincial State of Emergency.