People have moved into the forest?  Have you ever been to the Ashcroft/Cache Creek area?  This area of BC is semi arid, almost desert. Not many trees around until you get high into the hills around these two communities. 

From the article

'Wilfred Duncan, a retired forestry firefighter who watched as the fire tore through the home he was staying in on the Ashcroft Indian Reserve, said he had never seen anything like it.

“The way that was coming, there was no stopping it,” Mr. Duncan said. “We’re talking dry sagebrush, dry grass. What’s going to stop that? That’s just like lighting toilet paper on fire.”'

Grass and sagebrush isn't much more than waist high.  This isn't a 'forest fire', like the headline states it's a WILDFIRE!