The wildfire season in British Columbia is now the second worst in the province’s history–following only last year.

Since April 1st, more than 9,450 square kilometres of forest have burned to the ground.

Heavy smoke from the Elephant Hill wildfire in July was visible from a lookout near Clinton, B.C., about 40 kilometres northwest of Cache Creek. (Tina Lovgreen/CBC)

That compares with about 12,000 square kilometres that burned in 2017, bringing the two-year-total to 21,000 square kilometres of destroyed forest.

There have been 600 hundred more fires this year, says the province’s chief fire information officer, Kevin Skrepnek, but the province caught a break with a wet spring.

“We had a wetter June this year which has definitely, definitely been a saving grace for us,” said Skrepnek, speaking from the Provincial Wildfire Co-ordination Centre in Kamloops.

Skrepnek says the rainfall in June prompted flooding across much of the southern part of province providing firefighters with a head start.

This year’s pattern contrasts with 2017 when the most troublesome fires all started during a three-day period in early July and burned for months after they merged with other fires.

Ash covers the ground in an area burned by the Shovel Lake wildfire, near Fort Fraser, B.C. Some 9,400 square kilometres of forest land have been lost this year. (Darryl Dyck/Canadian Press)

“We had hundreds of fires start in that period. And the major incidents that turned into the massive the 100,000-hectare-plus fires that basically burned until the fall were in that period,” says Skrepnek.

There’s also a big difference on the number of those displaced and evacuated.

Last year, about 65,000 people were affected.

Officials say it is too early to tell how many people have been displaced or evacuated this year but so far, about 5.400 people have registered for emergency social services.

Skrepnek said approximately 4,500 people are currently working province-wide under the B.C. Wildfire Service.

With files from CP, CBC, CTV, Postmedia