New automated wildfire detection system to be installed at Burnaby Mountain | Daily Hive

Fire simulation at the Trans Mountain oil storage facility at Burnaby Mountain. (City of Burnaby/ONEC Group)

The City of Burnaby is moving to strengthen public safety on Burnaby Mountain with the installation of a new automated wildfire detection system, as previously commissioned simulations illustrate the potential consequences of rare but severe fire scenarios involving nearby oil energy infrastructure.

City officials announced today that smoke-detection cameras and ground-based sensor nodes will be installed on Burnaby Mountain later in 2026.

This system is designed to identify early signs of wildfire — including heat and smoke — in near real time, giving emergency crews critical advance warning during increasingly hot and dry summer conditions.

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“This investment is part of our commitment to protecting residents, students and critical infrastructure on Burnaby Mountain,” said Burnaby mayor Mike Hurley, who was a former firefighter with decades of experience.

“We’ve seen how the risk of wildfires continues to evolve as we experience hotter, drier weather in the summer — this new system is another tool to help us avoid the worst-case scenario.”

The sensors will be placed along the urban-wildland interface, evacuation routes, and near industrial sites such as the Trans Mountain oil tank farm and Shell’s Burmount Terminal, which are situated on the southwest slope and to the west of the mountain, respectively. Additional sensor locations are planned in collaboration with Simon Fraser University (SFU), including potential on-campus sites, and Parkland’s nearby Burnaby Refinery.

trans mountain oil farm storage tank burnaby mountain

November 2023 construction of the expansion for the Trans Mountain oil tank farm at the southwest slope of Burnaby Mountain. (Todamo/Shutterstock)

Burnaby Refinery near Burnaby Mountain. (EB Adventure Photography/Shutterstock)

Burnaby fire chief Miles Ritchie said the system is intended to convert early warning signs into “actionable alerts.”

“This system will give our firefighters a head start, by turning early signals into clear, actionable alerts so we can find the source fast, send the right crews and stop small problems before they become big ones,” said Ritchie.

Currently, the City does not have any automated fire detection system, and instead relies on manual observations by witnesses, members of the public, and other third-party reporting of fire on the slopes and forested areas of Burnaby Mountain.

Burnaby Mountain has a height of over 1,200 ft. above sea level, and the mountainside forested and conservation areas span 1,423 acres — a larger land area than Vancouver’s Stanley Park.

SFU’s campus atop the mountain has seen significant expansion over the decades, with much growth still planned, which will increase student enrolment and the residential population even further.

Major businesses not related to energy infrastructure are also located near the oil tank farm, specifically industrial businesses and several major film and television production studios, including the 2025 opening of North America’s largest purpose-built film and television production studio campus.

An aerial view of SFU’s Burnaby Mountain campus. (EB Adventure Photography/Shutterstock)

courtyard residence sfu burnaby simon fraser university

Courtyard Residence at SFU’s Burnaby Mountain campus. (Ledcor Group)

But one of the driving concerns about the mountaintop’s major academic campus and residential neighbourhood is that there are limited access roads for evacuations in the event of a wildfire.

A potential future TransLink gondola public transit line between the mountaintop campus and SkyTrain’s Production Way-University Station could potentially act as an additional evacuation route.

In addition to the new detection infrastructure, the City also recently completed new and expanded fire hall stations in and around Burnaby Mountain.

In Summer 2024, it opened the new Fire Station 4 at 1600 Greystone Dr., situated at the southwest base of Burnaby Mountain and strategically immediately west of the oil tank farm, replacing an aging facility nearby. Then in early 2025, a brand new additional purpose-built facility, Fire Station 8, opened at 9900 University Dr. East, immediately next to the mountaintop’s residential neighbourhood and providing SFU with an on-campus fire station. Firefighters at these facilities have special equipment to combat wildfires.

Fire Station 8 atop Burnaby Mountain, serving Simon Fraser University. (TDR Electric)

Alongside the new detection network, the City is partnering with SFU wildfire science experts to conduct a comprehensive assessment of the fire environment on Burnaby Mountain. The project will deploy advanced monitoring stations to collect real-time weather and soil data, supporting emergency preparedness and public education.

The investments are being funded through money received from Trans Mountain under a Community Contribution Agreement signed in 2024 and are part of preparations for a full-scale emergency exercise planned for 2027. This week, Burnaby City Council topped off the initiatives with $290,000 in supplemental funding.

Those preparations build on earlier planning work. In 2021, the City commissioned consulting firm ONEC Group to conduct a Burnaby risk assessment and develop a computer animation depicting hypothetical, low-probability industrial fire scenarios linked to energy facilities on and near Burnaby Mountain. City officials have emphasized that the animation was created using publicly available information at the time and does not reflect the current Trans Mountain infrastructure, which saw its expanded oil pipeline, tank farm, and export terminal recently reach completion, effectively nearly tripling capacity.

The expanded tank farm has 26 storage tanks with a capacity of about 5.5 million barrels of oil.

The municipal government’s simulation outlines several potential scenarios. One depicts a seismic event at the tank farm causing crude oil to spill into a containment area, ignite and escalate into a full surface tank fire, with the possibility of a dangerous “boilover.” The model shows how radiant heat from such a fire could ignite trees and other vegetation beyond the facility’s fence line, potentially triggering a wildfire at Burnaby Mountain, while heat and smoke impacts would vary depending on weather conditions, fuel type, and mitigation measures.

trans mountain burnaby mountain oil tank storage farm fire simulation

Fire simulation at the Trans Mountain oil storage facility at Burnaby Mountain. (City of Burnaby/ONEC Group)

A second scenario focuses on a jet fuel tank fire — a key supply for Vancouver International Airport — at the Westridge Marine Terminal, including the risk of extreme heat affecting nearby pressurized vessels and, in a worst-case chain of events, a pressure-related explosion. The animation suggests smoke from such a fire could blanket the Barnet Highway and nearby residential areas.

A final scenario illustrates how a leak during tanker loading operations could ignite, resulting in jet fires, pool fires, or flash fires depending on how quickly ignition occurs.

City officials state the purpose of the simulations was not to predict likely outcomes, but to help emergency planners understand complex risks and improve coordination among governments, industry, rights holders and first responders.

Fire simulation at the Westridge Marine Terminal oil export facility at the base of Burnaby Mountain. (City of Burnaby/ONEC Group)

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