One human caused fire remains one too many: Forests Minister

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VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – BC’s forests minister is questioning why there are still so many human-caused wildfires in the province.

Minister Steve Thomson says it’s taking away from the ability to fight blazes which are not in anyone’s control, lightning-caused wildfires.

“Over the weekend a significant number of fires were human-caused. One human caused fire remains one too many and this continues to be a source of significant frustration to our wildfire service, to the province and to our ministry.”

There were 140 new wildfires over the long weekend. Ninety-two of them were lightning caused and 36 were sparked by people. Costs to date total about $174 million with 282,000 hectares burning.

Thomson is also concerned about people flying drones near wildfires.

“Sort of like the human caused fire issue, it’s just activity that I don’t understand why it takes place and how people don’t realize the risk that can be posed to our personnel and our aircraft when we’re trying to deal with very critical situations in fires.”

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