The 2019 wildfire is now behind us and with preliminary stats available, the province has good and bad news.

The good news: after two of the very worst wildfire seasons on record, 2019 was relatively tame. According to the B.C. Wildfire Service, there were 793 fires across B.C. in 2019 that together burned an estimated 20,967 hectares.

Those numbers are way down from 2017 and 2018, when more than a million hectares were lost to wildfires each year. (The 10-year average is 400,191 hectares burned.)

So 2019’s wildfire season was a lot better than previous years had people worrying it would be. That’s the good news. The bad?

More than half of 2019 wildfires were caused by humans. About 54 percent, according to the B.C. Wildfire Service.

That’s a much higher percentage than in 2018, when 25 percent of fires were caused by humans. It’s also much more than the 10-year average of 37 percent.

So this year’s wildfire season was a relief after back-to-back seasons that were downright catastrophic. But it could have been even better if so many people weren’t so careless.

The provincial government has a comprehensive guide on wildfire prevention. “We’re in this together,” it begins. “Wildfire prevention can happen at home, in the backcountry, and through larger-scale fire and fuel management planning. Learn what you can do to help.”