If you enjoy an evening spent sitting around the campfire, you might want to light one this weekend. Fire information officer Kelsey Winter says there won’t be a campfire ban this weekend in the Kamloops Fire Centre, which includes the Okanagan.
“The fire ban depends on quite a few things. It depends on weather, fire activity and how much noncompliance we are seeing,” says Winter.”The zones in the Kamloops Fire Centre haven’t really reached that threshold that we have to activate the campfire ban yet. It is something we look at everyday and we will re-evaluated it again next week.”
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But Winter says the situation will probably change next week. She says weather will be the deciding factor in determining whether a campfire ban is imposed.
“We aren’t seeing precipitation in the forecast so that means the fire activity will pick up and so will the danger rating. As more weather stations end up in that extreme fire danger rating that makes, it more likely the campfire ban will be in place at least by the end of next week,” says Winter.
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If you do light a campfire fire this weekend, the province is urging caution. Winter says the public compliance is also one of the factors that impacts whether a campfire ban is imposed. Officials say campfires need to be kept to half a metre by half a metre in size and people should make sure they have enough water and a shovel to put out their campfires.
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