City of Prince Rupert clarifies Local Burn Prohibitions

While a Provincial Fire Ban remains in effect across most of British Columbia, the Prince Rupert Fire/Rescue Department has some good news for those within the City of Prince Rupert looking to roast a few hot dogs and marshmallows this weekend and beyond.

In a notice posted to the City of Prince Rupert website today, the City advised that small backyard cooking fires are still permitted within City limits, citing a provision in the regulations that note that municipalities with full-time Fire Departments have the right to set standards within their own communities based on the risks associated with local conditions.

Residents are encouraged to proceed with extreme care and caution and to strictly abide by the fire ban on Provincial lands.

To provide some geographical context to that situation, the City notes that Oliver Lake is within the city limits for Prince Rupert and the cooking fires would be seemingly be allowed there.

However Prudhomme and Diana Lakes, as well as Kloiya Bay are all Provincial lands and still under the provincial fire ban.

In addition to the notice related to the local burn prohibitions, the city also indicated that at the moment fire resources have been redirected to address fires through the rest of the province.

Not indicated in the city's official release is if the City of Prince Rupert has offered assistance to the wildfire efforts in the Cariboo, as other municipalities have done.

(Perhaps a task for Monday for the Communications Department)

With the current emergency situation in the province, a number of Northwest city council's have either sent units to the Cariboo, or put members from their respective department on stand by for use in the fire stricken regions of the province.

Terrace, Thornhill ready to help combat B.C. Wildfires
The Telkwa Fire Department is ready to fight wildfires
Smithers Fire Department to fight wildfires in Cache Creek

More notes related to the Cariboo Wildfires can be found on our archive here.

You can review the city's information release from the City website here.

More notes related to Northwest emergency responders can be found on our archive page here.

Further background on City Council can be found on our Council Discussion archive page

Cross posted from the North Coast Review