Kamloops Fire Centre 2014.07.08

E arlier this season, crews at the Kamloops Fire Centre spent a day get-ting certified for hover-

exits. A hover-exit is defined as “anytime staff are required to exit the aircraft while it is in a hover.” The helicopter is hovering above the ground and the pilot must ma-nipulate the controls to maintain a stable position and altitude.

Hover-exit training is a national standard governed by the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC) and courses are held in each zone throughout the Kamloops Fire Centre. The objective of the course is to train and certify personnel to safely and consistently perform the hover-exit procedure and to make sure that they have the knowledge

to make safe decisions around these aircraft.

Since hover-exits are high-risk maneuvers, safety must be the first consideration. These exits are only used when no other reasonable op-tion exists. All crew members are responsible for completing class-room and practical training each year before they can be certified to perform hover-exits.

Some zones in the Kamloops Fire Centre rely more heavily on hover-exiting due to more steep and inac-cessible terrain. The Lillooet Fire Zone in the Kamloops Fire Centre relies heavily on this procedure dur-ing the fire season.

For the latest information on fire activity, bans, restrictions and cur-rent conditions, visit the Wildfire Management Branch website at www.bcwildfire.ca

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BCForestfireInfo

Fire

Zone

# of

Fires

# of

Hectares

Clearwater 2 11

Kamloops 29 63

Salmon Arm 14 3

Vernon 15 5

Penticton 23 215

Merritt 22 13

Lillooet 12 20

Kamloops Fire Centre crews practise hover –exiting before the fire season kicks off.

P A G E 2

Kamloops Fire Centre Restrictions

Open fire prohibition set for Kamloops Fire Centre

KAMLOOPS – Effective at noon on Sunday, June

15, 2014, an open burning ban was expanded

throughout the entire Kamloops Fire Centre to

include the Salmon Arm Fire Zone and Clearwa-

ter Fire Zone. This is to help prevent human-

caused wildfires and protect the public.

This prohibition will remain in place in the Clear-

water Fire Zone and Salmon Arm Fire Zone for

elevations above 1,200 metres until Sept. 15,

2014. For all other elevations in those zones,

this prohibition will remain in place until Oct. 1,

2014.

This prohibition will remain in place in the Kam-

loops, Vernon, Penticton, Merritt and Lillooet

fire zones until Oct. 15, 2014, or until the public

is informed otherwise.

A map of the affected areas is available online

at: http://bit.ly/1mkOXtb

Specifically, this open fire prohibition applies to:

- The burning of any waste, slash or other mate-

rials.

- The burning of stubble or grass.

- The use of fireworks, sky lanterns or burning

barrels of any size or description.

This prohibition does not ban campfires that are

a half-metre high by a half-metre wide (or small-

er) and does not apply to cooking stoves that

use gas, propane or briquettes.

This prohibition covers all BC Parks, Crown lands

and private lands, but it does not apply within

the boundaries of a local government that has

forest fire prevention bylaws in place and is ser-

viced by a fire department. Before lighting any

fire, residents should check with local civic au-

thorities regarding any current prohibitions.

The Kamloops Fire Centre stretches from the

northern border of Wells Gray Park to the U.S.

border to the south, and from the Bridge River

Glacier west of Gold Bridge to the Monashee

Mountains east of Lumby.

For information about open burning and tips on

making responsible burning decisions, please

download one of the open burning guides at:

http://bcwildfire.ca/hprScripts/WildfireNews/

Bans.asp

Anyone found in contravention of an open fire

prohibition may be issued a ticket for $345 or, if

convicted in court, may be fined up to $100,000

and sentenced to one year in jail. If the contra-

vention causes or contributes to a wildfire, the

person may be subject to a penalty of up to

$10,000 and be ordered to pay all firefighting

and associated costs.

To report a wildfire or unattended campfire, call

*5555 on your cellphone or

call 1 800 663-5555 toll-free.

P A G E 3

Precipitation

Temperature Relative Humidity

These maps are for informational purposes only and should not be used to make operational decisions.

Fire Danger Rating

These maps are current for July 7, 2014.

For the most recent weather maps, please visit www.bcwildfire.ca/weather

P A G E 4

Most recent forecast for KFC Valid as of 9:30 a.m. on Monday, July 7, 2014

SYNOPSIS: Hot and dry weather is expected over the fire centre today and tomorrow as an upper ridge is established over the region. The air mass will be dry and stable with warming in the mid levels, giving sunny skies and relatively light winds. Temperatures are expected to exceed 30 de-grees today, and tomorrow will be several degrees warmer. TODAY: Subsident Zone, North Thompson and Monashees: Mainly sunny. Winds variable 10 to 20 km/h. High temperatures 30 to 34 and RH values falling to 20 to 35 percent. TONIGHT: Subsident Zone, North Thompson and Monashees: A few clouds. Winds becoming light and variable. Low temperatures 14 to 18 and RH recover-ies to 80 to 95 percent. TOMORROW: Subsident Zone, North Thompson and Monashees: Mainly sunny. Winds becoming westerly 20 km/h and afternoon winds south 40 gusting to 70 km/h in the Fraser Canyon. High temperatures 32 to 36 and RH values falling to 20 to 35 percent. 3 TO 5-DAY OUTLOOK: The upper ridge moves into the Prairies by Wednesday morning and an upper low will be tracking across northern B.C. and a dry cold front will pass over the region during the day. Skies will remain mainly sunny and temperatures will reach the high 20s to low 30s. Winds will be westerly at 30 km/h. Thursday will see the upper low move into northern Saskatchewan and the upper ridge will begin rebuild-ing along the coast with mainly sunny skies, winds west 20 km/h and temperatures in the high 20s to low 30s. The ridge will strengthen Friday and skies will be sunny with southwest winds 20 km/h and temperatures in the low to mid-30s. 6 TO 10-DAY OUTLOOK: Continued ridging, giving warm and dry condi-tions. CONFIDENCE: Good. Dry conditions for today and tomorrow. However, models hint at pockets of moisture for Wednesday through Friday. At this time, this moisture is not expected to develop any significant precipita-tion. Questions about the cold front on Wednesday centre around winds, as the front is expected to be dry. With a weak upper trough offshore later in the week, there is a slight possibility of subtropical moisture by the weekend.

Kamloops Fire

Centre Statistics

Since April 1, 2014:

Fires to date: 117

Hectares burned: 330

Person-caused fires: 82

Lightning-caused fires: 35

2009 at this time:

Fires to date: 297

Hectares burned: 9,001

Person-caused fires: 163

Lightning-caused fires: 133

2003 at this time:

Fires to date: 141

Hectares burned: 143

Person-caused fires: 94

Lightning-caused fires: 47

P A G E 5

NRO Reporting Line

Witness a Wildfire Act violation?

Call the NRO Tip Line

In mid-March, the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations launched a pi-lot project hotline for reporting natural resource violations.

Anyone who sees a possible violation of the Wildfire Act within the Kamloops Fire Centre ON-LYis encouraged to call

1 844 NRO-TIPS (1 844 676-8477)

The general public and stakeholders can also fill out the violation reporting form on the web-site: www.for.gov.bc.ca/hen/nrv/. The online form gives you the opportunity to describe the violation and upload a map or photo. The appro-priate government office or agency will then be notified to investigate the incident or concern.

The intent of the new hotline and webpage is to streamline violation reporting, enabling

Compliance and Enforcement Branch staff to re-spond more quickly.

Violations under the Wildfire Act could in-clude open burning operations during a burn ban or the use of fireworks, burning barrels or sky lanterns during a restricted equipment and activities prohibition. Also, if a campfire ban goes into effect, reports of illegal campfires or tiki torches should be directed to the Natural Re-source Officers.

All wildfires should still be reported to

1 800 663-5555 or *5555 on your cell phone.

Please note that this hotline is a pilot project and it only applies within the Kamloops Fire Centre’s boundaries, which extend from Wells Gray Park north of Blue River to the U.S. border and from the Bridge River Glacier west of Goldbridge to the Monashee Mountains east of Lumby.

P A G E 6

Fuel Moisture Codes

Want more information? Visit the websites at bcwildfire.ca

Report a Wildfire *5555 on a cell or 1 800 663-5555

Wildfire Information Line 1 888 3FOREST

Burn Registration Line 1 888 797-1717

Kamloops Fire Centre 1 250 554-5965

Media and Public Line

Important Numbers

W eather information is used to de-

velop codes to indicate how dry

the different classes of fuels are

in the forest. From this information, prepared-

ness levels are set on a daily basis.

The FFMC (Fine Fuel Moisture Code) is a

code that measures the dryness of fine fuels

(grasses, needles, etc.). A number of 85 or

higher indicates a good chance of a fire start

from an ignition source. Once 90 or higher is

reached, all the fine fuels are available to burn.

The DMC (Duff Moisture Code) measures

about 10 cm into the ground and is an indica-

tion of whether a fire that starts will continue

to burn in the duff. A number of 40 or greater

would indicate that a fire will continue to burn.

The DC is the Drought Code, measuring

deeper in the ground. A number of 300 or

greater indicates that the fire will burn deep

into the ground, providing challenges to mop it

up.

The Danger Class is the typical Fire Danger

Rating that is seen on fire signage, where 1

and 2 represent Low, 3 is Moderate, 4 is High

and 5 is Extreme. A map of the current Fire

Danger Ratings is on Page 3.

* If you have any questions about which

weather station you should be monitoring,

please contact your company forester or local

fire zone for information.

A tree catches on fire during a test fire lit by Wild-

fire Management Branch personnel for a fire inves-

tigation course near Merritt.

P A G E 7

Kamloops Fire Centre Indices July 7, 2014