Wildfires in British Columbia (Story Map) – How many are caused by Humans?

Those of you following the current wildfire situation in British Columbia, Canada as well as the smoky haze covering much of the Pacific NorthWest will find this of interest – enter the Story Map by Erin Philip, GIS analyst, Piers Consulting

Interactive Map:

Erin, a GIS consultant, lives in South Eastern B.C and has taken a special interest in the wildfires by mashing up data from a variety of sources and using the Esri Story Map technology to put the current situation into better context. Recently, Erin used a Story Map to convey just how many of the BC wildfires have been caused by humans.

From LinkedIn, Erin shares the following:

This whole process started when my sister witnessed two persons throwing their lit cigarettes outside their car window. With 2 fires of note burning on Vancouver Island, I understood my sisters outrage at these people for disregarding the risk they are putting others in by not putting the butt out in a can of water or in an ashtray.

I began to wonder, how many fires are set by humans? Lately we have been hearing about new fires popping up all over the province. There is a website you can visit that displays the current fires in British Columbia and their status, whether they are fires of note, new or active. However to see if the fires were human caused you have to click on each individual fire icon, which is not very productive. I wanted to create a quick map that people can view that shows the extent of human caused fires.

I started with a single map on July 7. It was quick and informative and I messaged my sister on Facebook to rattle off all the information I found as well as send her the link to the map I had made. It was fine, but why not keep it going, why not show people the extent of human caused forest fires daily?

And so my map story started. Daily I download the data off the government website