On average, wildfires have burned 314,383 hectares of forest in B.C. annually since 2008. In recent years, the scale and severity has increased. So far this year, 555,904 hectares of forest have been ravaged by fire in the province. This underscores the need for adaptation measures, including better prevention, detection and suppression, and in some cases, fighting fire with fire. Wildfire expert Mike Flannigan, recently recruited to TRU, is developing an improved wildfire detection system that uses machine learning to better predict when and where extreme fires are most likely to develop and how they might move and grow. Read more