Work Restrictions of high-risk activities in British Columbia

What is a work restriction?

During fire season in British Columbia, Canada, if you are carrying out an activity that is at risk of starting a wildfire, in an area within 300m of forest land or grass land you are obligated to determine whether there are work restrictions in your work area.

The BC Government has three steps you must figure out before this work starts. The steps are detailed on the BC Gov site, but in summary:

Step 1. Find out if your proposed activity is considered a high-risk activity. If it is, Step 2. Find out what the fire danger rating is at your proposed location of operation. Then, Step 3. Based on what the fire danger rating is, determine whether there are restrictions on high risk activities.

In a previous blog post we dove into fire danger ratings and what they mean but in this blog post we want to do a deeper dive into Step 3: determining work restrictions and how it might not be a straightforward task.

To determine work restrictions, Schedule 3 of the Wildfire Act provides you with a work restriction table to work through.

We've replicated that table below but have added labels next to each restriction to refer to them easily (R0 - R5) and will also sometimes refer to the duration of the restriction as exit conditions. This is the condition that needs to be met to no longer have to comply to that specific work restriction.

This table looks simple, but it's not. As you read closely you'll find the wording is not the most intuitive and a small misunderstanding of it can have large consequences. For example, you could be working when you should actually have your worksite shut down which could lead to a forest fire being started.

Now lets work through some scenarios and put this table to use!

Scenario 1

Let's start with a simple one. The example below lists danger ratings for an area from June 1 - June 5. Next to it we determine the restrictions based on the danger rating.

One aspect of the restriction table is that we have to keep track of consecutive days of danger ratings. On June 2, 3, 4, there are three consecutive days of DGR 3. On June 5th, a day after the 3rd consecutive day, the restriction levels up to R1 and a fire watch must be implemented for at least an hour after work.

If June 5th had a danger rating of 2 or 1, the restriction code would be R0 so no fire watches would have been necessary.

Scenario 2

Another fairly straightforward one. In this scenario we want to highlight when restrictions occur immediately once a danger rating for the day is released.

** Something interesting to note here is that on June 4, the danger rating is 5 therefore the work restriction immediately switches to ceasing work at 1 p.m. and setting up a 2 hour fire watch after work. However danger ratings aren't typically released until 2 p.m. of that day, which might mean a worksite not shutting down in time. Taking into account the weather, understanding how danger ratings work, and looking ahead of danger rating forecasts and work restriction for a forecast may be useful in this case.

Scenario 3

** As mentioned above we track multiple restrictions simultaneously. This means that once exit conditions are met for those restrictions, they can be removed. However we've encountered a BCWS fire behaviour specialist that interprets things slightly differently. They believe that upper level restrictions must be exited first before removing lower level restrictions.

Therefore if we revisit the danger rating chart above again using their interpretation, on June 9, the R1 and R2 restriction states would be kept intact without exiting. On June 10, with a danger rating of 3, the R4 state can exit but instead of being no work restrictions there will still be an R2 restriction.

Scenario 4

Here's an example where restrictions can be different based on how you interpret the table. Below is how we interpret the table by keeping track of multiple restrictions simultaneously.

As mentioned above, the above methods of determining work infers that that certain days can meet multiple restriction states, the restrictions stack up on top of each other, and the restriction states need to exit one by one.

Another way of interpreting the work restriction table, which one BCWS specialist used, is to look at the row in the restriction table corresponding to the new danger rating as soon as another restriction exits.

For example, yesterday on June 10, the danger rating was a 5 and the restriction was an R5. Then today on June 11, the danger rating is a 3. According to the duration beside the danger 5 row it states “Until after the danger class falls to DGR 4 for 3 or more consecutive days or falls below DGR 4”. Therefore on June 11, when danger rating falls to a 3, this takes us out of an R5 state, and we would look at the danger 3 row and check if we've had 3 consecutive days of danger ratings of 3 and above.

The following table helps demonstrate this method using the same dates and danger ratings as the example above:

In this case, on June 11 the exit condition for June 10's work restriction was met, and therefore we exit out of R5 and enter into R1. Therefore in this interpretation, for June 11, a work restriction could be to only “implement a fire watch immediately after the high risk activity ends for a minimum of one hour.”

In the previous interpretation with parallel stacking of restriction states, for June 11 the work restriction was much more strict. It was (R4) “Cease activity between 1 p.m. PDT (Pacific Daylight Savings Time) and sunset each day and implement a fire watch immediately after the high risk activity ends for a minimum of two hours.”

The guidelines in the Wildfire Act are not very clear and it might come down to a matter of opinion. There's also some wildfire and weather knowledge that is useful to understand that might help shape opinion. Understanding what weather patterns caused the danger rating to drop down from 5 to a 3 on June 11, and what's keeping it at a 3 is valuable to know and understand. Our team has consulted with wildfire experts from both BC Wildfire Services and workers performing high risk activities and have come across multiple different interpretations of this system. We've spent a lot of time reasoning through it, and although we take a more cautious approach to interpreting the restriction table, it is important to note that it's an opinion that should not be considered a hard and fast rule.

However if your goal is to figure out whether you should work or not, going through the work restriction table and working through the danger ratings and restriction states and keeping track of the previous days danger ratings can be a task that might lead to incorrect calculations or not being cautious enough. It can be very confusing! Beacon solves that problem by automating that process. You simply have to determine the weather station that best represents your work site and we provide you with historical, current, and future danger ratings along with the work restrictions.

If you work for an industry that is impacted by work restrictions during the wildfire season we'd love to hear about your experiences monitoring fire danger ratings and determining work restrictions. Do you have questions about the work restriction table or interpret it in a different way? Send us a message via email, Facebook , or Twitter!