By Dave Branco

Fighting within the ranking

Ranking fire behaviour

May 29, 2019 | 3:21 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – During the wildfire season, the BC Wildfire service uses a ranking system to describe forest fire behaviour. The system is based on a set of visual indicators then ranked between 1 and 6. Depending on the number, fire fighting crews can determine how to approach a wildfire. When a wildfire reaches a rank of 6, conditions are known to be extremely dangerous. According to BC Wildfire the safest strategy during a rank 6 fire, is to pull resources back to ensure personnel and the public are safe and wait for fire behaviour to change before re-engaging in fire suppression operations.