Hornby Island Fire Rescue

Effective noon on Thursday, Sept. 30, we will be lifting the burning ban. Campfires and backyard burn piles will be allowed again.

Category 3 piles are often machine-built or are larger than 3 meters in diameter and higher than 2 meters. These piles always require a permit, a good venting index, a machine on site, and a solid water source.

For a Category 2 burn, it’s neighbourly to do it on a day with a good venting index. You can see the local venting index on the sidebar of our website.

For any burning:

• please be extremely careful,
• keep your fire well away from standing timber, structures, and dry grass,
• keep a rake or shovel handy,
• have some water on standby,
• continuously keep a close watch over the fire.

• Campfires are 1/2 meter in diameter and used for cooking, warmth, or ceremony.
• Do not leave your campfire unattended
• Make sure you have a bucket of water to extinguish it if the wind comes up or for when you go to bed.
• Please don’t use sand to put it out, because it can trap heat, force it to burn underground into logs and roots, and can cause a nasty burn if someone with bare feet steps on it.

The requests from BC Wildfire keep coming.

Late yesterday a request came in for HIFR to send our old Tender 62 with a crew up to Cache Creek.

“Old Yeller”, as she is now nicknamed was one of our tenders until her retirement last year. She is now available to be sent to support wildfire suppression and structure protection when and where needed.

Our very own Chief Chinnery and Firefighter Leblond-Blais are off for at least a week.

Long days are ahead for these two.

I know we all wish them well and a safe deployment.

Taio is leaving on Fri evening to join our good friends at Oyster River Fire for Provincial wildfire deployment. They’ll be relieving the Oyster River team, which has been doing 12- to 18-hour days of structure defence operations in the Kamloops and Caribou zones. They’ll be on a Type 1 engine working in the interface/intermix zone where the wildfire meets the inhabited zone.

Taio recently earned her Engine Boss certification, which enables her to lead a structural apparatus team in a wildfire operation. It’s an emotional time when they leave the nest, and I’m so proud of her for her accomplishments. Please wish her and her team safe travels and safe operations.

Just like that, the total fire ban is back in place on Thursday, July 16 at noon. That makes it a complete fire ban on anything other than a propane fuel fire ring.

I just got a message from BC Wildfire Service’s Coastal Fire Center. They included an additional explanation, excluding “Wood-fired hot tubs, wood-fired pizza ovens and other wood-fired devices unless vented through a structure that has a flue and is incorporated in a building.” My understanding of that phrase is that barrel saunas are fine as long as the wood stove is inside the sauna. A wood-fired pizza oven in your house is OK, but one outside is not. Wood stoves in your house are also fine.

You all have until Thursday to enjoy your s’mores, burnt hotdogs, and flaming marshmallows over a smoky wood campfire. Get after it, but be careful, and please extinguish it with water.

We’ve been promising it for months. We just got word that we can book the dates so here’s what you need to know:

We’re expecting a complete fire ban to begin on Thursday, May 7, at noon. No backyard burning, no category 3 piles, and no campfires. Any open permits will be considered revoked on Thursday at noon.

There have been 11 wildfire starts on Vancouver Island, and a minor one here on Hornby. Our partners at BC Wildfire Service have done an excellent job of getting them all out and mopped up, but it’s just going to get harder and harder as the weather heats up.

Much of B.C. has been experiencing hot, dry, and sunny conditions over the past several days, drying out vegetation across the province. Wind is expected to increase tomorrow through the north and parts of central B.C., and across most areas on Wednesday, May 6. If a wildfire starts, it could grow quickly.

The good news is that we are looking at a spring chipping run to begin in the next few weeks. More news on that as soon as we can schedule the contractor.

Given the drying conditions, the fact that we’ve just seen our first wildfire in our zone, the two burn pile-related incidents we’ve attended in as many weeks, and the prospect of a nasty fire season, we will soon require permits for all burns larger than a campfire. Permits are free and can be obtained by calling the fire hall at 250.335.2611 or by filling out the form at the bottom of the page. Someone will come to inspect your burn pile on Wednesday and Saturday mornings.

The HIFR member who comes to see your backyard burn pile will want to see the following:

• A water source
• Hand tools for extinguishing
• 3m clearance to buildings, tall grass, or standing timber.

Any burn piles containing logs or stumps are considered category III piles and require:

• A provincial burn number
• 250 gallons of water and a pump capable of delivering 50GPM
• a good vent index
• at least 1km from the school
• more than 500m from the closest residence