BC wildfire season opens with 36 active fires, nine out of control, as Coastal Fire Centre lifts campfire ban

British Columbia is heading into the May long weekend with 36 active wildfires burning across the province, nine of them classified as out of control, the BC Wildfire Service confirmed Thursday in its first major update since the start of the official fire season. The agency announced separately that the Category 1 campfire prohibition will be rescinded throughout the Coastal Fire Centre at noon on Friday, May 15, a sign of cooler and wetter conditions on the coast even as the southern Interior continues to dry.

The split picture between coast and Interior is becoming the defining feature of the British Columbia fire season as it shapes up in 2026, and is consistent with what climatologists have been forecasting since the snowpack survey results were released in March. Coastal regions are entering the warm season with above-normal soil moisture and a slow start to lightning activity. The southern Interior, by contrast, is showing fuel moisture readings comparable to early July rather than mid-May, an unsettling indicator of where the season may be heading.

For the provincial government, the early activity is also a test of the new prevention and response framework introduced after the historic 2023 and 2024 seasons, when fires destroyed entire communities and forced tens of thousands of evacuations. Forests Minister Bruce Ralston, in a media availability Thursday afternoon, said the BC Wildfire Service is fully staffed and fully equipped heading into the long weekend, and that the lifting of the coastal campfire ban should not be read as a relaxation in any of the Interior regions.

Where the fires are burning

The largest cluster of active fires sits in the Cariboo and Kamloops Fire Centres, where lightning earlier this month touched off a string of smaller starts in dry timber. Several of those fires have grown to between 50 and 200 hectares and are being attacked by mixed ground and air crews supported by water bombers based in Kamloops and Prince George.

The most operationally significant fire on Thursday was a 320-hectare blaze burning in the Peace River region southwest of Fort St. John, a fire that prompted an evacuation alert affecting roughly 40 residences earlier this week. The alert has not been upgraded to an order, but the BC Wildfire Service said crews are preparing structure protection equipment for the closest properties as a precaution.

Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland have so far been quiet. The Coastal Fire Centre's decision to lift the campfire prohibition starting Friday is based on a multi-week run of cool, damp conditions that have lowered fuel ignition risk to spring norms. The Centre cautioned that the rescission applies only to the coastal region and that bans remain in place across the Interior.

What has changed since 2024

The structural response to the 2023 and 2024 fire seasons has been the most significant overhaul of the BC Wildfire Service in two decades. Permanent staffing has been increased, year-round positions have been added, the budget for prevention and prescribed burns has roughly doubled, and the province has acquired additional water bombers and night-flying helicopters. The Service's interagency relationships with the Canadian Armed Forces and with First Nations community guard programmes have been formalised.

One of the most consequential changes has been the integration of Indigenous fire stewardship into provincial planning. Several First Nations across the southern Interior have run their own controlled burn programmes on traditional territory under partnership agreements with the Wildfire Service, and the cumulative effect has been measurable in fuel reduction. The province has also expanded community FireSmart funding, with grants now available to all municipalities and many regional districts for prevention work on the wildland-urban interface.

The early-season test is whether those investments translate into a measurable reduction in the size and intensity of fires this summer. Two years of reduced activity would not be conclusive, but it would represent the first signal that the post-2024 reset is working.

Weather and outlook

Environment and Climate Change Canada's seasonal outlook for the British Columbia summer is on the warmer side of normal, with precipitation forecast to track close to long-term averages on the coast and below normal in much of the Interior. The forecast carries the standard caveats. It does not address week-to-week variability, and it does not address the timing of any meaningful Pacific moisture deliveries.

The largest immediate concern, according to BC Wildfire Service operations leaders, is the lightning forecast for the back half of the long weekend. A weak upper trough is expected to track across the southern Interior on Sunday and Monday, with the potential to produce isolated thunderstorms over fuel that is already drier than is normal for mid-May. A new run of starts would stress crews that are already engaged on fires from earlier in the month.

Air quality forecasters at Environment Canada said smoke transport to the Lower Mainland has been minimal so far this year, with the prevailing wind pattern keeping smoke from the southern Interior fires aloft rather than mixing it to surface levels. That pattern is expected to hold through the weekend, but air quality advisories remain in effect across portions of the Kootenay region.

Indigenous communities on alert

Several First Nations across the southern Interior have activated their emergency operations centres in response to the fires now burning in their traditional territories. Esketemc First Nation, west of Williams Lake, has been coordinating with the Cariboo Regional District on evacuation planning. Tsq'escenemc First Nation, also in the Cariboo, has expanded its community wildfire response programme to ensure structure protection equipment is staged at key sites.

The provincial government has confirmed that funding flows under the Indigenous Community-Based Emergency Management programme will be accelerated this season, with payments made on a rolling basis rather than after the season ends. The funding model was overhauled in late 2025 after First Nations leaders criticised the previous structure for forcing communities to carry the costs of evacuation and protection efforts before being reimbursed.

First Nations Leadership Council co-chair Cheryl Casimer said the early-season activity reinforces the need for continued investment in Indigenous-led stewardship and response capacity. Casimer noted that traditional fire management practices are increasingly recognised within the Wildfire Service's planning framework, but said funding levels for community-led programmes have not yet caught up with the demand.

What residents should do

The BC Wildfire Service's standing guidance to residents in fire-affected regions remains in place. Anyone living in or near an area with an active fire should sign up for community evacuation alerts, have an evacuation kit ready, and follow updates from regional districts and from the Service's online dashboard. Drone activity over any active fire is prohibited under federal regulations.

For residents elsewhere in the province, the Service is reminding the public that campers should review local restrictions before heading out for the long weekend. The Coastal Fire Centre's lifting of the Category 1 campfire ban does not extend to other regions of the province, and the Kamloops, Cariboo, Southeast, Prince George, and Northwest Fire Centres all retain various restrictions on open burning.

EmergencyInfoBC, the province's centralised alert system, is the authoritative source for any evacuation alerts or orders. Residents can register to receive notifications by SMS and email. The province has also expanded the FireSmart programme this year to include retrofitting grants for homes in moderate-risk zones, with applications open through the spring and summer.

The federal connection

The Carney government has signalled it will accelerate federal contributions to provincial wildfire prevention and response under the new Major Projects Office and the climate adaptation envelope. Officials in Ottawa briefed reporters earlier this month that the federal contribution to wildfire response in British Columbia in 2026 will be roughly 20 per cent higher than in 2025, and that the federal Disaster Financial Assistance Arrangements have been streamlined to reduce the lag between provincial requests and federal disbursements.

The Department of National Defence has also confirmed that Canadian Armed Forces personnel based in British Columbia have been pre-positioned for fire response support, with several hundred personnel from CFB Edmonton on standby for deployment if a provincial request is received. Operation Lentus, the Canadian Forces' name for domestic wildfire and flood response, has been activated in British Columbia in five of the past seven years.

Premier David Eby, asked about the early season activity on Thursday, said the province is better prepared than it has ever been but that no level of preparation can completely insulate communities from extreme fire weather. Eby's government has been preparing legislative changes to the Forest and Range Practices Act that would tighten requirements on industrial operators in fire-prone landscapes, with details expected later this spring.

What's next

The next two weeks will set the tone for the rest of the season. If the predicted Sunday and Monday lightning activity touches off significant new starts, the Service will be working at near-full capacity through the long weekend and into the early-summer pivot. If the storms underdeliver and the southern Interior gets a few days of cooler temperatures, the existing fires can be contained and a more measured operational tempo can be sustained.

For the Wildfire Service, the broader question is whether the prevention investments of the past two years will measurably reduce the upper bound on what the season looks like at peak. Even with a slow start, modern fire seasons can shift abruptly in mid-July, and the planning assumption is that any year can produce a destructive late-summer event.

For residents across the province, the message from Forests Minister Ralston was direct. Plan ahead, follow restrictions, and stay aware. The fires now burning are a reminder that the fire season is no longer an Interior summer event but a province-wide reality that begins earlier each year. The Canadian Wire will continue to track the season as it develops.