Dry northeast 'region of greatest concern' in B.C.'s wildfire season: officials

British Columbia's wildland firefighters are predicting a busy fire season in parts of the province, particularly in the northeast where multiple evacuation orders are already in place and fires have been growing rapidly.

Neal McLoughlin, superintendent of predictive services for the B.C. Wildfire Service, said that while spring rainfall and normal temperatures have alleviated some concern, the likelihood of an active season is growing in regions experiencing persistent drought, including the southwestern Interior, the Chilcotin and the far northwest.

"But the northeast is the region of greatest concern, and will experience continued fire activity through the summer, given their multi-year drought conditions and presence of overwintering fires that have shown up this spring," he told a news conference Monday. 

McLoughlin said the amount of rain required to mitigate risk in areas of persistent drought isn't on the way.

"We would need upwards of 150 millimetres of rain over the next three weeks to really make a dent in some of those high drought levels. We'd be looking at multiple days of 20 to 30 millimetres of rain, and we're just not seeing that in the outlook," he said.

David Campbell, the head of the province's River Forecast Centre, told reporters that the northeast is experiencing Level 3 and Level 4 droughts, on a severity scale from zero to five.

"We've really seen a cumulative lack of rainfall over the last one to two years, and that's really been a key driver in terms of ongoing and persistent drought in those regions," he said.

All other areas of the province range in drought conditions from Level 0 to Level 2.

As of June 1, Campbell says that the province is averaging around 44 per cent of normal snowpack levels, decreasing from 61 per cent recorded on May 15.

Minister of Emergency Management Kelly Greene said at the news conference that 10 evacuation orders were in place, affecting approximately 120 households in the Peace River Regional District, Fort Nelson First Nation and Northern Rockies Regional Municipality.

Greene encouraged British Columbians to be prepared for emergencies this summer by gathering together things including several days of food and water, medications and important paperwork.

"'I'm asking everyone to have a plan in place now, before there's an emergency. Now is the time to make sure you have your grab-and-go bag ready for you and your family, including any pets," she said.

Forests Minister Ravi Parmar, speaking at the news conference, said that B.C. had deployed over 100 wildland firefighters to the provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Ontario.

"We expect the majority of our people resources will be back in B.C. in the next week," he said.

"We often look to June rains as an indicator of how severe our wildfire season will be," he added. "And although it's still early, models are showing that much of the province is trending towards warm and dry conditions and so we may not get the precipitation we're hoping for."