The B.C. government has taken action to curb the risk of forest fires in the current heat wave.

It has prohibited open fires in most of what it calls the "coastal fire centre".

It covers areas west of the Coast Mountains from the border at Manning Park and includes Tweedsmuir South Provincial Park, the Sunshine Coast, Metro Vancouver Island, and the Gulf Islands.

The only exceptions to the fire ban are on Haida Gwai and along a two-kilometre strip called the "fog zone" along the east side of Vancouver Island. It stretches from Owen Point near Port Renfrew to the tip of Vancouver Island and around to the boundary of the District of Port Hardy.

This ensures that hikers along the West Coast Trail can still create campfires on their treks.

"This prohibition does not apply to CSA-rated or ULC-rated cooking stoves that use gas, propane or briquettes, or to a portable campfire apparatus that uses briquettes, liquid or gaseous fuel, so long as the height of the flame is less than 15 centimetres," the government states. "Anyone found in contravention of an open burning prohibition may be issued a violation ticket for $1,150, required to pay an administrative penalty of $10,000 or, if convicted in court, fined up to $100,000 and/or sentenced to one year in jail. If the contravention causes or contributes to a wildfire, the person responsible may be ordered to pay all firefighting and associated costs."

The ban applies to the following:

* campfires;

* category 2 open fires;

* category 3 open fires;

* fires burning woody debris in outdoor stoves;

* the use of tiki torches, fireworks, firecrackers, sky lanterns, burning barrels or burning cages of any size or description;

* and the use of binary exploding targets (e.g. for rifle target practice).