Due to forest fires in Sweden, many Swedish counties have issued a total fire ban, such as Västerbotten and Jämtland. In most cases, this includes camping stoves, and therefore has the potential to strongly impact any outdoor recreation unless backpackers are happy to skip hot meals. In Dalarna this ban will last until at least 1st of October. Information is available on the website of the respective counties.

The Swedish counties of Dalarna, Jämtland, and Västerbotten all border Norway, which is seeing record heat and drought as well. Therefore, I would expect bans to be in force in Norway as well. Where can I find information on current fire bans in Norway?

  • Interesting, I guess I ignorantly assumed everyone issued firebans the same way Alberta does: albertafirebans.ca – ShemSeger Jul 30 '18 at 14:58

I was about to write a long essay on how strange the Norwegian rules regarding rights-of-every-man and the department of safety and readiness but I realized you are just asking where to find the information.

This is usually not a judgement that is made at the nation level - it is made by each municipality or city council. So you'll normally expect to find it at the website of the city or municipality. Example 1: Oslo and Example 2: Fyresdal.

Now, if you were to say: "Hey, all this is in Norwegian, and by the way there is no common way of finding the exact information, on one municipality I have to click the "Aktuelt" (Recent) button and scroll... This is impossible for a foreigner to keep track of!?"

I have to say, yeah - that seems to be the case.

  • That's quite silly, not only from an information point of view, do they expect forest fires to stop at municipal borders? It seems that currently, in Stekenjokk I can't light my fully enclosed Stormkök even on a bare rock in the middle of a lake, yet just across the border I can happily make an open campfire as long as I'm above the treeline. BTW, this page on yr.no does seem relevant, although it's not on bans. – gerrit Jul 26 '18 at 10:34
  • Interestingly, Majavatn, which is just across the border from Västerbotten and Jämtland with their 100% fire bans including closed camping stoves, had >20 mm of rain in the past 24 hours and had a fire risk of 0 just 2 days ago. Maybe I don't need to cancel my hiking plans quite yet. – gerrit Jul 26 '18 at 10:38
  • @gerrit Don't cancel the plans. You can make a fire, even in the case that it is forbidden. Strangely enough. One of the few quirks with norwegian law is the right-of-every-man guaranteeing access to wilderness and the shore. It is explicitly in the law an exception to the law - if there is "obviously no risk of a fire". This can be achieved by making the fire under reasonable wind conditions, on bedrock, with access to water. So unless there is martial law, it is allowed. You'd have to back it up with an argument to experience, but I think you'd qualify - given your history on this site... – Stian Yttervik Jul 26 '18 at 13:43
  • @gerrit Oh, and yr.no is probably the best and most official, while unofficial, site on where you can and can't make a fire. It at least covers where you should or shouldn't... – Stian Yttervik Jul 26 '18 at 13:45
  • I'll keep the yr.no fire risk page bookmarked to see what happens. – gerrit Jul 26 '18 at 13:54

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