In the first half of 2018, British Columbia suffered more than 560 wildfires. By the end of the year, more than two thousand wildfires had burned more than of land.
Lightning caused the Comstock Lake fire, discovered on June 21. By July 6, it had grown to and still was not fully contained. At one point more than 200 personnel were fighting the fire complex.
The Tugwell Creek fire near Sooke grew to , and was 10% contained by July 4. The fire threatened millions of honeybees at Tugwell Creek Honey Farm and Meadery. It was fully contained on July 9.CTV News twitter July 9, 2018
The Shovel Fire, started on July 27, burned at least . It was still active as of August 20. Thick smoke slowed efforts to contain the fire.
A human-caused fire at Nanaimo Lakes, discovered on July 1, had burned 14.5 hectares in three days.
As of August 28, estimates put 2018's wildfire season as having the largest burn-area in a BC wildfire season, surpassing the historic 2017 wildfire season and its burn-area of 1,216,053 hectares). The total land burned in 2018 covered about ~1.4% of the area of the province.
+Largest fires in 2018RankingFireSizeDate discoveredStatusRef1Tweedsmuir Complex fireAugust 8Out2Johnny Creek FireAugust 4Out3Alkali Lake Complex fireAugust 1Out4Lutz Creek Complex fireAugust 4Out5Shovel Lake fireJuly 27Out6Nadina Lake fireJuly 31Out7Verdun Mountain fireJuly 31Out8Silver Lake fireAugust 5Out9Tommy LakesMay 22Out10Island Lake fireAugust 1Out11Chutanli Lake fireAugust 1Out
Smoke Wildfires caused severe smoke to cover much of British Columbia. It has impacted tourism and cancelled flights. The smoke spread across Canada and as far as Ireland. In Prince George, British Columbia smoke orange sky at 8:40 AM, and 9:10 AM turns into midnight from wildfires. Then 3 PM in Grande Prairie, Alberta thick layered smoke plume generated by the fire which turned day into night during the afternoon of that day at the location.
See also List of disasters in Canada List of fires in Canada List of fires in British Columbia List of wildfires
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