Plateau Complex fire

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Plateau Complex
Part of 2017 British Columbia wildfires
BC wildfires July 18, 2017.jpg
Fires in the Cariboo before merging, July 18, 2017
Date(s)July 7, 2017
LocationCariboo Regional District, British Columbia, Canada
Statistics
Total fires19
Total area545,151 ha

The Plateau Complex was a wildfire in the Canadian province of British Columbia in 2017. The complex was a result of the merging of 19 separate wildfires over the months of July and August. [1] At a final size of 545,151 hectares (1,347,100 acres), it is the second largest fire in B.C. history. [2] The fire burned in the Interior plateau in the Cariboo and Chilcotin regions, approximately 60 kilometres (37 mi) northwest of the city of Williams Lake. [3]

Contents

Background

The 2017 fire season in B.C. was, at the time, the most destructive in terms of area burned in the province's history. [4] The Cariboo region saw high temperatures throughout the month of June, increasing the fire risk. [1] The area had been severely affected by the mountain pine beetle epidemic, which had killed off significant amounts of lodgepole pine. [5] This resulted in a very high Build-Up Index, a measure of available flammable material in forest areas. [1]

Ignition and spread

The first of the many fires that would become the Plateau Complex was noticed in the province's Cariboo region on July 7th. [6] A large number of fires were sparked by a major system of thunderstorms that moved through the region between July 6th and 8th. The fire was detected inside Itcha Ilgachuz Provincial Park. [6] The fires that would become the complex saw large growth at the end of July, and by mid-August, some had joined together. [6] Some of the individual fires that burned into each other included the Chezacut, Tautri, Bishop’s Bluff, Baezaeko, Wentworth Creek, and Arc Mountain fires. [3]

Impacts

The Plateau Complex fire, as well as several other major fires in the same region (such as the Hanceville-Riske Creek fire and the Elephant Hill fire), led to a provincial state of emergency for a total of 10 weeks, the longest at the time. [7] Five homes and 25 structures were destroyed by the fire. [7] Logging is a major industry in the region; the fires caused a loss of approximately 22,000,000 cubic metres (780,000,000 cu ft) of green timber. [5] Also lost were important habitats for bighorn sheep, old growth forests, and forests and facilities in provincial parks. [5]

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Wildfire Season Summary - Province of British Columbia". www2.gov.bc.ca. BC Wildfire Service, Province of British Columbia. Retrieved 2025-05-03.
  2. ↑ Kulkarni, Akshay (June 18, 2023). "Donnie Creek wildfire in northeast B.C. now the largest recorded in province's history". CBC News.
  3. 1 2 Lamb-Yorski, Monica (2017-08-22). "Plateau Fire largest in B.C. history". The Williams Lake Tribune. Retrieved 2025-06-12.
  4. ↑ "Canadian Disaster Database". bdc.securitepublique.gc.ca. Public Safety Canada, Government of Canada. 2018-12-21. Retrieved 2025-06-11.
  5. 1 2 3 Nichols, Diane; Ethier, Tom (January 19, 2018). Post-Natural Disturbance Forest Retention Guidance - 2017 Wildfires (PDF) (Report). Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development, Province of British Columbia.
  6. 1 2 3 Crowley, Morgan A.; Cardille, Jeffrey A.; White, Joanne C.; Wulder, Michael A. (July 2019). "Generating intra-year metrics of wildfire progression using multiple open-access satellite data streams". Remote Sensing of Environment. 232: 111295. doi: 10.1016/j.rse.2019.111295 .
  7. 1 2 Lamb-Yorski, Monica (July 20, 2018). "Tried and tested, Cariboo Chilcotin residents move beyond 2017 wildfires".
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