2018 British Columbia wildfires

2018 British Columbia wildfires
2018 British Columbia wildfires
	Wildfire smoke from the Pacific to the Rocky Mountains and beyond, filling the BC interior and Eastern Washington; August 20, 2018
Date(s)	Evacuations:; Ended, 2018; Provincial state of emergency: August 15, 2018 – September 7, 2018
Location	British Columbia, Canada
Statistics
Burned area	1,351,314 hectares (3,339,170 acres) as of November 9, 2018
Land use	Forest and residential
Impacts
Deaths	Unknown
Non-fatal injuries	Unknown
Structures destroyed	~50
Damage	Unknown
Ignition
Cause	Lightning and Human-Caused
Season
	← 2017

By the end of June 2018, there had been more than 560 wildfires in British Columbia.^[3]

The Comstock Lake fire, discovered on June 21, was caused by lightning. By July 6, it had grown to 27.5 square kilometres (10.6 sq mi) and was not fully contained.^[4] At one point over 200 personnel were fighting the fire complex.^[5]

The Tugwell Creek fire near Sooke grew to 85 hectares (210 acres), and was 10% contained by July 4.^[6] The fire threatened millions of honeybees at Tugwell Creek Honey Farm and Meadery. It was fully contained on July 9.^[7]

The Shovel Fire, started on July 27, burned at least 86,397 hectares (213,490 acres), and was still active as of August 20. Thick smoke harmed efforts to contain the fire.^[8]

A human-caused fire at Nanaimo Lakes, discovered on July 1, reached 14.5 hectares by July 4.^[6]

A total of 2,115 wildfires burned 1,351,314 hectares (3,339,170 acres) of land in 2018 as of November 9.^[9]

As of August 28, initial estimates put 2018 as the largest burn-area in a British Columbia wildfire season,^[1] surpassing the historic 2017 wildfire season (1,216,053 total hectares).^[10] The total land burned in 2018 represented about ~1.4% of the total area of the province.

Largest fires in 2018
Ranking	Fire	Size	Date discovered	Status	Ref
1	Tweedsmuir Complex fire	301,549 hectares (745,140 acres)	August 8	Out	^[11]
2	Johnny Creek Fire	156,775 hectares (387,400 acres)	August 4	Out	^[12]
3	Alkali Lake Complex fire	121,215 hectares (299,530 acres)	August 1	Out	^[13]
4	Lutz Creek Complex fire	100,799 hectares (249,080 acres)	August 4	Out	^[12]
5	Shovel Lake fire	92,412 hectares (228,360 acres)	July 27	Out	^[8]
6	Nadina Lake fire	86,767 hectares (214,410 acres)	July 31	Out	^[14]
7	Verdun Mountain fire	47,610 hectares (117,600 acres)	July 31	Out	^[15]
8	Silver Lake fire	23,042 hectares (56,940 acres)	August 5	Out	^[16]
9	Tommy Lakes	21,795 hectares (53,860 acres)	May 22	Out	^[17]
10	Island Lake fire	21,381 hectares (52,830 acres)	August 1	Out	^[16]
11	Chutanli Lake fire	20,813 hectares (51,430 acres)	August 1	Out	^[16]

Smoke

Wildfires caused severe smoke to cover much of British Columbia. It has impacted tourism and cancelled flights.^[18] The smoke spread across Canada and as far as Ireland. In Prince George, British Columbia smoke orange sky at 8:40 AM, and 9:10 AM turns into midnight from wildfires. Then 3 PM in Grande Prairie, Alberta thick layered smoke plume generated by the fire which turned day into night during the afternoon of that day at the location.^[19]