Two 2023 fireground incidents – one involving an entrapped crew in a high-risk planned ignition, the other a firefighter death in a vehicle – has triggered the British Columbia worker safety agency to levy a record-high fine against the province’s government, the second such fine in the same number of years.

WorkSafeBC began considering the most recent fine in May of this year after a planned ignition in 2023 trapped a team of five Brazilian firefighters and forced other crews involved in the burn to navigate off-road when their escape route was compromised, according to the agency’s penalty summary. The agency blamed a lack of planning, training, and communication for the incident, along with supervisors not following the employer’s safety program and operations manual.

A separate 2023 incident was also added to the penalty, where a firefighter died and another was injured when their UTV went over a steep embankment. The agency said neither worker was wearing a helmet, the passenger wasn’t wearing a seatbelt, and the passenger-side retention netting had previously been damaged. Inadequate supervision, a lack of safe work procedures, and a lack of pre-use inspection of the UTV were all contributing factors.

The combined fine was imposed is $759,368.84 (CAD). The fine is the largest that the agency has ever levied, second only to the $710,488.79 penalty it also issued against the BC government in 2023 for unsafe wildfire mitigation work. That fine was ultimately cancelled in 2024.

“Administrative penalties are fines imposed on employers for health and safety violations of the Workers Compensation Act, the Occupational Health and Safety Regulation, and/or orders of WorkSafeBC, and for failure to take sufficient precautions to prevent workplace injuries or illnesses,” the agency said on its website. “Penalties are published as a deterrent and to highlight the importance of making workplaces safe.”

The record-high fine caused the B.C. General Employees’ Union, which represents over 2,000 wildland firefighters, to demand the province’s Wildfire Service address its alleged inadequate supervision, training and risk assessments to protect its wildland firefighters. The Union has previously pressed the Service to address high turnover and inconsistent safety practices.

“This decision confirms what our members have been saying for years, that systemic safety issues within the BC Wildfire Service are putting workers at risk,” said Union President Paul Finch in a press release on Friday. “We welcome WorkSafeBC’s direction to bring the employer into compliance with basic health and safety obligations. Every worker deserves to come home safe at the end of the day.”

The 2023 wildfire season was the most destructive in B.C.’s history, with over 7 million acres burned, hundreds of homes destroyed, and tens of thousands of people forced to evacuate. The fires stressed local economies, infrastructure, and local ecology, but also had an unquantifiable impact on the province’s firefighting force, partly caused by the deaths of six wildland firefighters.

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