GFMC: Forest Fires in Canada, 14 August 2000
14 August 2000
The Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC) distributes timely information about forest fires in Canada. The current fire situation for 10 August 2000 can be summarized as follows:
over the last 24 hours: 12 fires for 6,876 ha season summary: 4,456 fires for 530,078 hectares
According to the National Forest Fire Situation Report of 9 August 2000 (updated every Friday), that the fire activity continues to remain below average. The weekly total for hectares burned last week was consistent with 10-year averages for this time of the season although the total for the season is well below average. The area of smoke has decreased since last week. Conditions remain dry in much of the western provinces and the territories. Risk is increasing in southern parts of Manitoba and Alberta and in southeastern part of British Columbia; some risk continues in the northern parts of Saskatchewan, Ontario and the Northwest Territories.
Number and area of forest fires in Canada, as of 9 August 2000
current uncontrolled controlled active modified 7 209 198 2000
(to date) 10-year
average in %
of normal Prescribed
burning Number 4,218 6,557 64% 41 Area (ha) 520,373 1,952,230 27% 7,881
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 (1 km) resolution. You can also click on any fire and get information about that fire.
The satellite image, the daily fire overview map and the season-to-date hotspot map for 13 August 2000
display the current significant fire events
(Source: FireM3)
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.
The latest available images are shown below (13 August 2000):
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.
The latest available images are shown below (13 August 2000):
Foliar Moisture Content
Surface Fuel Consumption
Rate of Spread
Total Fuel Consumption
Head Fire Intensity
Fire Type
The Saskatchewan Daily Forest Fire Situation Report (13 August 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: 19 extinguished in the past 24 hours: 3 new fires: 1 total number of fires to date this year: 378 total up to this date last year: 583 five year average for this date: 626
British Columbia Forest Service Wildfire Report (10 August 2000):
REMSAT Deployment to K60217
The REMSAT (Remote Emergency Management via Satellite) facility has been successfully deployed to the Thynne Mountain Fire camp (K60217) as of 1420 hours today. The REMSAT facility was operations within 2 hours and 40 minutes of arrival. Remsat offers 2 Satellite phones, Fax, Fire operations mapping, onsite media updates, and email services to Incident command staff. This is the first Operational deployment of REMSAT.
Wildfire Statistics Report, 10 August 2000
Number of Fires Burning: 155 Number of New Fires (Lightning): 117 Number of New Fires (Human Caused): 37 Total Lightning Fires: 569 Total Human Caused Fires: 448 Total Fires to Date: 1,017 Total Area Burned (ha): 13,417
Fire Danger Rating for British Columbia, 13 August 2000.
(Source: British Columbia Forest Service)