Camping & Campfire Safety

Campfire, fire-ban, and off-road-vehicle safety so a trip in the backcountry never becomes the next wildfire.

Always extinguish a campfire with soak, stir, soak — never bury it

Burying a campfire does not put it out — embers can smoulder underground for days and re-emerge as a wildfire long after you have driven home.

Check fire bans for your area before you leave home

BC violation tickets for breaking a campfire ban start at $1,150, and if your fire escapes the court fine can reach $1 million plus three years in jail.

In BC, a Category 1 campfire must be smaller than 0.5 by 0.5 metres

A legal BC campfire is no taller and no wider than half a metre — anything bigger is a Category 2 open fire and may be banned even when campfires are allowed.

Alberta uses five restriction levels — know which one applies

Under an Alberta Fire Ban, even backyard fire pits on private land are illegal — the level above just a campground restriction shuts down all wood fires province-wide.

Off-road vehicles need a working spark arrestor on Crown land

OHV exhaust systems run hotter than 200 °C — hot enough to ignite grass and moss caked under your skid plate, which is exactly what a spark arrestor screen is designed to prevent.

Never park a hot OHV on dry grass

Most OHV-caused wildfires start when a hot muffler or skid plate touches dry grass at a rest stop — not from sparks out the tailpipe while moving.

In national and provincial parks, use designated fire pits only

Parks Canada bans new fire rings entirely — campfires must be inside an existing designated pit, even in undeveloped backcountry sites unless explicitly permitted.

If you find an unattended fire, put it out and report it

Many of the West’s biggest summer fires started as someone else’s abandoned campfire — reporting one the moment you find it is the single most useful thing a hiker can do.

Clear a one-metre circle of vegetation around your fire

Roots and duff can carry fire underground for metres before re-emerging — which is why backcountry fires need to sit directly on mineral soil, not on the forest floor.

Fire advisory, restriction, ban — they are not the same

A Fire Restriction in Alberta still allows campfires inside designated campgrounds — but a Fire Ban does not, and that single word changes what is legal in your campsite.

These articles are the same wildfire safety library that lives inside our free app. Browse every category in the safety library, or open the live map to see current fires and alerts across Western Canada and 18 western US states.