GFMC: Forest Fires in Canada, 24 July 2000

over the last 24 hours:	74 fires for 9,421 ha
season summary:	3,010 fires for 210,639 hectares

According to the National Forest Fire Situation Report of 19 July 2000 (updated every Friday), that the area burned is 11% of normal, due to continuing wet weather in much of the country. High fire risk is in British Columbia and the northwest, with warmer and drier weather over much of the country expected to increase risk in all regions.

current	uncontrolled	controlled	active modified
current	2	90	96
	2000 (to date)	10-year average	in % of normal	Prescribed burning
Number	2,808	4,907	57%	40
Area (ha)	148,964	1,365,929	11%	7,863

The Fire Monitoring, Mapping, and Modelling (FireM3) is a collaboration of the Canadian Forest Service and the Canada Centre for Remote Sensing. Through the Map Link at the FireM3 web site you can access daily hotspot images. An Internet Map Server, which is like a simple GIS running on the host computer, allows you to zoom in on any fire or other area of interest and view the image and map data at full (1km) resolution. You can also click on any fire and get information about that fire.

The Canadian Forest Fire Weather Index (FWI) System is a part of the Canadian Wildland Fire Information System and consists of six components that account for the effects of fuel moisture and wind on fire behavior. The first three components are fuel moisture codes and are numerical ratings of the moisture content of litter and other fine fuels, the average moisture contentof loosely compacted organic layers of moderate depth, and the average moisture content of deep, compact organic layers. The remaining three components are fire behavior indexes which represent the rate of fire spread, the fuel available for combustion, and the frontal fire intensity; their values rise as the fire danger increases. For futher information please see the Summary Information.

Fine Fuel Moisture Code	Duff Moisture Code	Drought Code
Initial Spread Index	Buildup Index	Fire Weather Index
	Fire Danger Rating

The Canadian Forest Fire Behavior Prediction (FBP) System is an other part of the Canadian Wildland Fire Information System and provides quantitative estimates of head fire spread rate, fuel consumption, fire intensity, and fire description. With the aid of an elliptical fire growth model, it gives estimates of fire area, perimeter, perimeter growth rate, and flank and back fire behavior. For futher information please see the Summary Information.

Foliar Moisture Content	Surface Fuel Consumption	Rate of Spread
Total Fuel Consumption	Head Fire Intensity	Fire Type

The Saskatchewan Daily Forest Fire Situation Report (23 July 2000) is listing all forest fires currently burning in Saskatchewan and their current status. This report also gives statistics on the total number of fires to date. The whole report and further information can be accessed at the fire management website of "Saskatchewan Environment and Resource Management" (SERM).

fires burning in the province today:	21
extinguished in the past 24 hours:	0
new fires:	1
total number of fires to date this year:	319
total up to this date last year:	510
five year average for this date:	527

British Columbia Forest Service Wildfire Report (23 July 2000):
Aggressive action on lightning caused fires
Although lightning storms continued through the southern two-thirds of the province last night, associated showers helped wildland fire fighters in their efforts to quickly suppress most of the related fire starts. The southeast was the only part of the province which did not receive any significant overnight rainfall. One hundred sixty-seven fires are currently burning in the province, including 122 new lightning-caused fires from these recent thunderstorms. This brings the total number of wildfires reported in the province to date to 636. Thirty-three new lightning-caused fires were reported in the Kamloops Fire centre area alone. Most of these have been held at under one hectare in size. The highest concentration of fire starts occurred in the area west of Osoyoos and up the Okanagan valley to Kelowna. A wildfire north of Creston on the east side of Kootenay Lake has reached 90 hectares in size. A special incident command management team was assigned to this vigorously burning fire yesterday to help develop a strategy for its containment. Two air tanker groups responded to this fire report late yesterday and 37 fire fighters continue to battle the blaze today. Lightning storms caused spot fires in Prince George Fire Centre area as well. Crews continue to work on a six hectare fire 19 kilometres east of Fort Nelson. This vigorously burning wildfire fanned by 30 kilometre winds was contained late yesterday by a nine-person crew, two air tanker groups and two helicopters. The fire is burning in black spruce and was a threat to timber values in the area. This fire has been contained and work continues today. A large wildfire continues to burn just south of the Canada/U.S. border about 12 kilometres from Osoyoos in the Orville area. There have been evacuations but no reported loss of homes so far. This fire has reached almost 2,000 hectares in size and continues to demonstrate extreme fire behaviour. It is currently moving in a south-easterly direction. B.C. Forest Service officials are in contact with their U.S. counterparts and are discussing possible assistance in control efforts. However, late yesterday, changing priorities required the re-routing of two air tankers groups dispatched to this fire from B.C. This change was undertaken on short notice to action lighting-caused fire starts in the Penticton and southeast areas.

Number of Fires Burning:	89
Number of New Fires (Lightning):	23
Number of New Fires (Human Caused):	6
Total Lightning Fires:	168
Total Human Caused Fires:	366
Total Fires to Date:	534
Total Area Burned (ha):	12,420