Largest Fires By Fire Centre

[Glacier]

The Southeast is overdue for a big fire season. 9 of the top 10 largest fires there occurred in 2003.

Fires marked in red are the ones I've visited. Which ones have your visited?

Cariboo
Size (ha)………Year………Name
66571………2009………Brittany Triangle
30844………2010………Pelican Lake Complex
29202………2003………Chilko Lake/Chilko Rvr
22745………2004………Lonesome Lake
20925………2009………Kelly Creek
16237………2010………North West of Alexis Lake
16167………2010………4 km NE of Meldrum Creek
15657………2010………2-3km S of Meldrum Creek
11639………2010………S of Bull Canyon
11500………2006………10km North of Narcosli Ecological Reserve


Coastal
Size (ha)………Year………Name
4553………2010………Dean River
1000………2009………Wolf River
980………2004………Kookipi Creek
850………2009………Camel Hump E
823………2009………Copper Mt
720………2009………Tuwasus Creek
574………2009………Taleomey River
540………2014………Mehatl Valley
535………2004………Tsileuh Creek
450………2009………E side of Nimpkish


Kamloops
Size (ha)………Year………Name
26345………2003………McClure #2
25912………2003………OK Mountain Park
11395………2003………McGillvray
10000………2009………Cottonwood Creek/Stein Park
9277………2009………38KM Stewart FSR (AKA Terrace Mountain)
8050………2009………Tyaughton Lake
7636………2003………Venables Valley
6467………2009………Big Dog Mtn
5730………2003………Strawberry Hill
5560………2005………Sleetsis Creek


Northwest
Size (ha)………Year………Name
133100………2014………Chelaslie River
40000………2010………Binta Lake
35284………2010………Old Faddy
29962………2004………Swan Lk.
28000………2010………Sheslay River
14000………2004………McBride River 2-3 Miles East.
11000………2011………Blue River
9500………2004………Nome Lk.
8000………2004………East of Horse Ranch Range
7450………2012………Entiako Lake


Prince George
Size (ha)………Year………Name
61285………2014………Tenakihi - Mesilinka
33547………2014………Red Deer Creek
33068………2014………Forres Mountain
32000………2003………Midwinter Lake
32000………2004………Coal River
26281………2014………Mount McAllister
25569………2015………Little Bobtail Lake
24852………2012………White Spruce Creek
23182………2009………Junction of Smith and Liard rv
21518………2014………Euchiniko Lakes

Southeast
Size (ha)………Year………Name
11882………2003………Lamb Ck
9875………2003………Middle Fork/White River
7916………2003………Kutetl Ck
6700………2003………Ingersol
5300………2003………Ram creek
4836………2003………Kuskanook
4000………2003………Plumbob Mtn
3969………2007………Pend D'Oreille River
3869………2003………Skinner Ck
3543………2003………Magnesite Ck

Average Number of large fires per year (5 ha or greater):

Fire Centre...........Hectares/year…Large Fires/year
1) Prince George ........46,706….….58
2) Northwest.............31,273….….15
3) Cariboo...............30,669….….31
4) Kamloops..............16,749….….40
5) Southeast.............9,636….….28
6) Coastal...............1,473….….13

It is interesting how the Southeast has more fires than the Northwest, but less than 1/3 of the amount of land gets burned. Our area also gets a lot of fires, but few hectares of land gets burned.

[Drip_Torch]

The biggest fire I've ever visited?

Hmm... guess I'd have to say it was in Coastal, 1991. V5004, the TAQ fire - about 20ha.

Safe to say it really changed the way I measure how big a fire is.

Drip.

[rookie314]

Biscuit fire in Oregon, 500 million to fight. Don't remember the acreage but that was my biggest.

[tsayta]

20ha?

[Drip_Torch]

Yeap - 20 ha of nominally valuable f&b.

He said, "visited" - that's by far the biggest fire I've ever visited out of curiosity. Perhaps, one of the biggest fires in BC in close to 7 decades. The other big fire I've "visited" was in Fernie, but it would be extremely hard to find evidence of it, unless you really know what to be looking for. That was the biggest fire, but it predated the forest service; so I didn't figure it counted.

Which fire was bigger? The OMP fire of 2003 or the Chelaslie River of 2014? The answer is very obvious to the managers and business administrators. Not so obvious to others.

It all depends on how you look at fire.

[bob vernon]

The Toronto syndrome.

No fire anywhere in the province could possibly be anywhere near as bad as a fire that was near Kelowna.
Especially if you're in Kelowna looking at it.

[Frisk]

Mclure 2003 was bad, not quite as damaging as the park fire but it's definitely comparable.

What happened to BC in 2003 is still dwarfed by what happened to California later that same year.

[Glacier]

Mclure 2003 was bad, not quite as damaging as the park fire but it's definitely comparable.

I'm not sure you can say not quite as damaging when the town's largest employer was burned to the ground never to be rebuilt in addition to 1/3 of the homes in Louis Creek burning to the ground.