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The lightning strikes that officials fear could spark a wave of new wildfires in British Columbia have begun to arrive.
The British Columbia Wildfire Service (BCWS) warned Tuesday that dry lightning forecast from the eastern Okanagan to the Alberta border, combined with ongoing drought and strong winds, could lead to a “significant wildfire.”
“We have begun to see some lightning activity in the southeast corner of the province and this will likely continue over the next 48 hours as the system moves through British Columbia,” fire information officer Aidan Coray said Wednesday.
She said officials are particularly concerned about the western Caribou region and the southern and southeastern interior.
“They’re expecting lightning with little or no accompanying precipitation, and that’s likely to continue through Thursday and Friday,” Coray said.
This comes after Environment Canada issued a heat warning for the Okanagan, Shuswap, South Thompson and Fraser Canyon.
“We’re expecting daytime highs in the mid to upper 30s, as well as overnight lows in the mid 30s,” Environment Canada meteorologist Colin Fong told CBC News.
“We expect the weather to cool down on Friday, so it will essentially be a two-day event.”
British Columbia fire danger rating as of July 15, 2026 (BC Wildfire Service)
Much of British Columbia’s southern interior was classified as a high fire danger rating, with extreme ratings in parts of the fire centers of Kamloops, Caribou and the Southeast.
Coray said the wildfire service had proactively positioned ground and air resources in southern British Columbia in anticipation of a possible surge in new fires.
She urged anyone who sees the new fire to report it immediately.
A new bushfire burning south of Pemberton was spotted on Wednesday, July 15, 2026. (Sent)
10 new fires in the last 24 hours
As of Wednesday evening, BCWS reported that 10 new fires had been reported in the previous 24 hours.
One of these fires, the Signal Hill wildfire, burned near the village boundary of Pemberton on One Mile Lake Hill.
As of Wednesday evening, the fire was four hectares in size and was believed to be human-caused, the classification of any fire not caused by lightning.
The village said it was closely monitoring the situation, but there were no immediate evacuation orders or warnings.
Crews were also called to a new fire near the Coquihalla Highway, about 25 kilometers north of Hope.
Smoke and aircraft were visible to drivers, but the fire did not pose an immediate threat to structures or critical infrastructure, BCWS said.
Meanwhile, fire crews continue to battle a pair of out-of-control wildfires on both sides of Highway 1 near the Boston Bar known as the Brunswick complex.
While the estimated size of the Brunswick Creek and Ainslie Creek bushfires – about 194 square kilometers (19,400 hectares) combined – has not increased much in recent days, the BCWS said it is seeing an increase in fire intensity as temperatures warm.
Numerous evacuation orders and warnings remain in effect due to the complex in Brunswick.
There were 29 active wildfires across British Columbia on Wednesday, with 10 classified as out of control.
With the risk of wildfires growing, a fire ban across most of the Coastal Fire Center is scheduled to go into effect at noon on Thursday. Campfires were already banned at the Kamloops Fire Centre.
Less stringent bans covering fires taller than two meters and wider than three meters are in place throughout the rest of the province, except for parts of the northeast.