2017 British Columbia wildfires
| 2017 British Columbia wildfires | |
|---|---|
| Date(s) | Evacuations: July 6, 2017 – September 20, 2017 Provincial state of emergency: July 7, 2017 – September 15, 2017 |
| Location | British Columbia, Canada |
| Statistics | |
| Burned area | 1,216,053 hectares (3,004,930 acres) as of December 5, 2017 |
| Land use | Forest and residential |
| Impacts | |
| Deaths | 0 |
| Non-fatal injuries | Unknown |
| Structures destroyed | 444 |
| Damage | Over $649,000,000 |
| Ignition | |
| Cause | Lightning and Human-Caused |
| Motive | unknown |
| Season | |
2018 → | |
On July 6, 2017, a two-hectare wildfire began west of 100 Mile House, British Columbia, Canada marking the beginning of the record-breaking 2017 wildfire season in British Columbia. On July 7, 56 new fires started throughout British Columbia (BC) leading to several evacuation alerts, orders and the declaration of a provincial state of emergency by the Government of British Columbia. By September 12, 158 fires were burning throughout the province. A total of 12,161 square kilometres (1.2 million hectares) had burned by the end of the 2017 fire season, the largest total area burned in a fire season in recorded history (1.3% of BC total area). This record was broken the following year, with five of BC's worst 10 fire seasons occurring since 2010. However, the 2017 fire season was also notable for the largest number of total evacuees in a fire season (65,000 people), as well as for the largest single fire at the time in British Columbia history. Research indicates that human-caused climate change played a significant role in the fires.