This summer was the first one in years that didn't include a campfire ban on Vancouver Island.
Indeed, the entire Coastal Fire Centre region -- which includes all of Vancouver Island, plus the Sunshine Coast -- saw a 2019 wildfire season that was significantly less dangerous and destructive than the last two.
As of Saturday, only 315 hectares in the coastal region had burned this summer. By this time last year, more than 160,000 hectares had been burned.
While 2018 was an exceptionally bad year for wildfires, the 2019 number is still dramatically less than the average, which has been 22,000 hectares per year over the last decade.
So far, there have been 150 fires in the Coastal Fire Centre region this year, compared to 291 in 2018.
