Effective at 1:00 PM (MT) on Friday, May 30, 2025, Category 3 open fire will be prohibited throughout the Southeast Fire Centre, which includes the Rocky Mountain Natural Resource District, the Selkirk Natural Resource District, Fernie, the Elk Valley and South Country. This prohibition is being enacted to help prevent human-caused wildfires and protect public safety.
Anyone conducting Category 3 open fire within the Southeast Fire Centre’s jurisdiction must extinguish those fires by the 1:00 PM (MT), May 30, 2025, deadline.
This prohibition will remain in place until 1:00 PM (MT) October 30, 2025, or until the order is rescinded.
In addition to Category 3 open fires, the following equipment and activities will also be prohibited:
• Air curtain burners
• Carbonizers
A Category 3 open fire is a fire that burns:
• Material concurrently in 3 or more piles, each not exceeding 2 metres in height and 3 metres in width
• Material in one or more piles, each exceeding 2 metres in height and 3 metres in width
• One or more windrows each not exceeding 200 metres in length or 15 metres in width
• Stubble or grass over an area exceeding 0.2 hectares
You can find the PDF poster for Category 3 open fire here.
This prohibition applies to all areas in the Southeast Fire Centre that are outside of municipal boundaries. In addition, this prohibition applies to the following types of land within municipal boundaries:
• Parks, conservancies and recreation areas (Park Act)
• Recreation sites, recreation trails, interpretive forest sites and trail-based recreation areas (Forest and Range Practices Act)
• Ecological reserves (Ecological Reserve Act)
• Wildlife management areas (Wildlife Act)
• Private managed forest land (Private Managed Forest Land Act)
• This prohibition also applies to all lands in the Villages of Slocan and Silverton municipalities.
Municipalities often follow BC Wildfire Service prohibitions or may impose different prohibitions based on conditions in their local area. If you are in a municipality, be sure to check if local prohibitions are in place. If you are within a regional district or improvement district, this prohibition applies as well as any local prohibition issued by the regional district or improvement district. BC Parks follows BC Wildfire Service prohibitions.
This prohibition does not include Category 1 campfires or Category 2 open fires. Further information on the different types of open fire is available online.
The Southeast Fire Centre is asking anyone who conducted a Category 3 pile burn over the fall or winter to check their burn site(s) and ensure they are fully extinguished.
Offences and fines
Anyone found in contravention of an open fire prohibition may be issued a ticket for $1,150, required to pay an administrative penalty of $10,000 or, if convicted in court, fined up to $100,000 and/or sentenced to one year in jail. If the contravention causes or contributes to a wildfire, the person responsible may be ordered to pay all firefighting and associated costs.
Report a wildfire
The Southeast Fire Centre would like to thank the public for its continuing help in preventing wildfires.
To report a wildfire, unattended campfire, or open burning violation, dial *5555 on a cell phone or call 1 800 663-5555 toll-free.
