Effective on Thursday, May 18, most open burning activities will be prohibited throughout the Coastal Fire Centre’s jurisdiction, which includes the Sea to Sky communites.
Category 2 and Category 3 open fires will be prohibited throughout the Coastal Fire Centre and the prohibition will be in place until October 31. It applies to all public and private land, unless specified otherwise, example in a a local government bylaw.
Specifically, this prohibition refers to the following activities:
“category 2 open fire” which means an open fire, that
burns material in one pile not exceeding 2 m in height and 3 m in width,
burns material concurrently in 2 piles each not exceeding 2 m in height and 3 m in width, or
burns stubble or grass over an area that does not exceed 0.2 ha.
“category 3 open fire” which means an open fire that burns
material concurrently in 3 or more piles each not exceeding 2 m in height and 3 m in width,
material in one or more piles each exceeding 2 m in height or 3 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.
Also prohibited are the activities listed below:
Fireworks;
Sky Lanterns;
Binary Exploding Targets;
Burn Barrels or Burn Cages of any size or description; and,
Air Curtain Burners.
This prohibition does not apply to Category 1 campfires that are a half-metre high by a half-metre wide or smaller, or to cooking stoves that use gas, propane, or briquettes. Anyone found in contravention of an open fire prohibition may be issued a violation ticket for $1,150, required to pay an administrative penalty of up to $10,000 or, if convicted in court, fined up to $100,000 and/or sentenced to one year in jail. If the contravention causes or contributes to a wildfire, the person responsible may be ordered to pay all firefighting and associated costs.
The Coastal Fire Centre covers all the area west of the height of land on the Coast Mountain Range from the U.S.-Canada border at Manning Park, including Tweedsmuir South Provincial Park in the north, the Sunshine Coast, the Lower Mainland, Vancouver Island, the Gulf Islands and Haida Gwaii.
