2015 B.C. fire season one of the worst in past decade

The B.C. Wildfire Service says 2015 was a bad year for wildfires, with nearly three times as many hectares burned as the 10-year average.

"Certainly fire activity this year was more intense," said fire information officer RyanTurcot.

"We did see abnormally high amounts of lightning activity, we saw really dry conditions in a lot of areas."

• B.C. fires: CBC journalist faced evacuation, destruction of his own cabin
• B.C. Fires: Province burns through wildfire budget again
• Heartbroken Rock Creek evacuees set animals free to flee wildfire

Turcotsaid the early start of springand the hot, dry weather in B.C. created ideal conditions for wildfires.

In total, more than 300,000 hectares of forest burned. Turcot said many of the largest fires were in northern B.C. and didn't threaten communities.

So far this year, the province has spent $287 million fighting fires that's twice the 10-year average.

Many fires this summer were human caused,including the wildfire near Rock Creek that burned more than 30 homes.

"It's fair to say this was one of the worst in the past 10 years in terms of human impact," said Turcott.

In total more than 50 structures burned downthe highest number since since 2003.