More about the Causes of Wildfires

Wildfires are broken down into two classes - lightning and human-caused (which is further separated for Industry-caused wildfires). There are a number of categories of human-caused fires:

Other Human-Caused:

• Incendiary - a wildfire wilfully started
• Miscellaneous Known - where cause is known but does not fit into other categories (spontaneous combustion, prescribed burn)
• Recreation - person or equipment engaged in recreation activity
• Resident - farmers/ranchers/settlers, cottage owner, Indian on reserve, children playing with matches, absent landowner.

Industry-Caused:

• Forest Industry
• Other Industry - industry other than forest industry and railways (mining, oil and gas, trappers, commercial tourism, utility industry, etc.).