Is climate change contributing to B.C.’s intense wildfire season, and what do zombie fires have to do with it?

The 2025 wildfire season has already been the second-worst on record, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC).

Has climate change been a contributing factor in this year’s fire intensity?

“Fire has been a part of Canada’s national history for centuries,” said Hossein Bonakdari, associate professor at the University of Ottawa.

“But climate change is making wildfires in B.C., and other places in the country, worse.”

As of Sept. 9, B.C. has already seen 834,545 hectares of its forests and land destroyed by wildfires.

Even though that’s fewer than the previous year, and far fewer than in 2023, it amounts to five times more hectares burned than in 2022.

According to BC Wildfire Service, 2023 was the “most destructive in British Columbia’s recorded history.”

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