Current Burn Status
Effective at noon (PDT) on Friday, July 12, 2024
Campfire ban is in effect.
No open burning is permitted in the Shawnigan Improvement District.
Campfires are prohibited throughout the Shawnigan Lake Improvement District. These prohibitions apply to all public and private land.
This prohibition will be in place until further notice.
Category 1 campfires, Category 2 open fires, and Category 3 open fires are all prohibited. The graphic below explains the different categories of open burning and applicable regulations.
In addition to fires being prohibited, the following activities and equipment are also restricted:
- Fireworks
- Sky Lanterns
- Burn Barrels or Burn Cages of any size or description
- Binary Exploding Targets
- Air curtain burners
- Tiki and similar kind of torches
- Chimineas
This prohibition does not include the use of outdoor stoves. As per the Wildfire Regulation, an outdoor stove is a CSA-rated or ULC-rated device used outdoors for cooking, heat or ambiance that burns charcoal briquettes, liquid fuel or gaseous fuel, and has a flame height that is less than 15 cm tall.
Enforcement
Enforcement of fire prohibitions is undertaken by:
- The Compliance and Enforcement Branch of the Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development;
- The Conservation Officer Service; and
- The RCMP
All illegal fires will be investigated, and charges may be laid under the Wildfire Act or Wildfire Regulation, depending on the outcome of the investigation.
Anyone found in contravention of an open burning prohibition may be issued a violation 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.
To report a wildfire, unattended campfire or open burning violation, call 1-800-663-5555 toll-free or *5555 on a cellphone.
