CN Rail has been ordered to pay more than $16.6 million after being deemed responsible for a wildfire near Lytton in 2015.

The Cisco Road wildfire started on June 11th, 2015, and burned more than 2,200 hectares. It happened about 10 kilometres south of Lytton on the west side of the Fraser River, and forced a number of homes to be evacuated. It took four months before it was extinguished.

The fire started next to CN Rail tracks, and in May of 2018 it was determined that the fire was started by sparks from workers cutting a rail line.

According to a ruling from a three-person panel with the Forest Appeal Commission, the fire danger rating in the Lytton area was “extreme” at the time, and rail cutting was considered a high-risk activity.

After an order to pay more than $16.28 million, CN Rail appealed part of that amount and has asked for the total fine to be reduced to $8.29 million.

CN has, instead, actually been forced to pay $16.62 million, nearly $400,000 more than the original order, because of new details on the extent of the damage.

That fine amount includes nearly $9.4 million for the value of “forest land resources” and “grass land resources” that was destroyed, as well as more than $6.9 million for costs for the B.C. government to fight the fire, $169,000 to cover the cost of reforestation, a $75,000-dollar administrative penalty and $52,000 for the value of Crown timber that burned.

The fine is believed to be one of the largest fines – if not the sole largest fine – for a human-caused wildfire in B.C. history.

(Photo: BC Wildfire Service)