If you conduct an open burn of piled vegetative debris in the SLRD, you will need to follow the Open Burning Smoke Control Regulation (OBSCR) and the Wildfire Act and Regulation. The OBSCR governs the requirements of open burning of vegetative debris including felled trees for land clearing. Any materials greater than 3cm in diameter that are open burned in piles, must follow the area specific guidance for their smoke sensitivity zone.
These requirements include:
- Following ventilation conditions for favorable smoke dispersion for your area and smoke sensitivity zone using the venting map - www.gov.bc.ca/ventingmap.
- Restricting open burning to certain times of day, and to a certain number of days for a month or full calendar year.
- Placing your pile a certain distance from neighbouring residence, business, hospitals, schools and community care facilities.
- Notifying neighbours if you are open burning within 500m of their building, or 1000m of a hospital, school or community care facility.
- Keeping records of all Category 3 pile burning.
- If you are only burning material less than 10 cm in diameter on a farm or on your own property where you live, then a simpler set of rules applies.
For a complete list of requirements visit the Province of BC Open Burning page for your specific smoke sensitivity zone factsheet. To find your smoke sensitivity zone, type in your address to the ventilation index venting map tool. Click on the map and find a pop-up window indicating your smoke sensitivity zone. Download records sheets for ease of record keeping here.
The BC Wildfire Act also requires that anyone lighting a Category 3 fire must first obtain a burn registration number by calling 1 888 797-1717. For more information on all the requirements for the BC Wildfire Act, contact the burn registration desk or visit the Open Fire and Safe Burning page on the Province of BC website.
If you suspect someone is conducting an open burn that is not following the requirements of the Open Burning Smoke Control Regulation, please contact the Report All Poachers and Polluters (RAPP) hotline at 1-877-952-7277 or #7277 on the TELUS network.