Preparing Your Home For Wildfire
The guides, fact sheets, and other resources in this collection will help equip homeowners and community members with knowledge needed to implement wildfire resilience actions on their property. They are especially useful for users who are newer to wildfire or unsure where to start. We recognize that a whole-of-society approach to wildfire includes local populations being empowered with access to best practices for resilience.
Resources in this collection
Climate Ready Homes: Information Briefing on Extreme Heat and Poor Air Quality: Advice to Residents
Investing in a climate-ready home means preparing for longer, more frequent heatwaves and protecting your family from potentially deadly wildfire smoke. Depending on your homes setup and resources available, experts recommend three main options for mechanical cooling.
Conseils pour protéger votre propriété contre les feux incontrôlés : Mieux/Meilleur: rénovations
Ce document se veut un ensemble de lignes directrices générales visant à accroître la résilience des projets de construction ou de rénovation.
Conseils sur les feux incontrôlés pour les fermes et les ranchs
Les propriétaires de fermes et de ranchs sont confrontés à des risques uniques liés à la menace des feux incontrôlés. Prenez les choses en main avant qu’un incendie ne menace et soyez prêt à affronter un feu incontrôlé. Pour minimiser les risques de dommages et de pertes liés à un feu incontrôlé, il est important de prendre des mesures qui réduiront les possibilités que le feu attaque directement une maison ou un bâtiment, et que les braises soufflées par le vent enflamment les objets situés à proximité d’un bâtiment, ce qui pourrait amener les flammes à toucher et enflammer le bâtiment. Tenez compte de la vulnérabilité de toutes les structures et de tous les éléments combustibles présents sur la propriété, tels que les équipements, les clôtures, les logements et les installations d’entreposage, ainsi que la végétation. Tous ces éléments sont vulnérables aux feux incontrôlés.
Farm and ranch wildfire guidance
Farm and ranch owners face unique risks from the threat of wildfire. Take control before a fire threatens and be wildfire ready. To minimize the potential for damage and loss from a wildfire, it’s important to take actions that will reduce the opportunity for fire to burn directly to a home or building, and for windblown embers to ignite items near a building that could result in flames touching and igniting the building. Consider the vulnerability of all structures and combustible items on the property such as equipment, fences, housing and storage facilities, and vegetation. All of these are vulnerable to wildfire.
FireSmart 101
More so than ever before, Canadians are feeling the direct and indirect impacts of wildfire. There is a growing need for FireSmart education. FireSmart Canada has developed a FREE one-hour course for those who are getting started with FireSmart and want to learn more. FireSmart 101: - provides an introduction to FireSmart and its principles - helps participants understand the need to protect homes and properties from wildfire - defines the wildland urban interface - outlines the seven FireSmart disciplines - explains the FireSmart the home ignition zone. There’s a short quiz at the end to ensure participants understand the material. FireSmart 101 empowers residents to take action!
FireSmart Fact Sheet: Decks and Porches
Many homes have attached decks, which can spread fire directly to the home when ignited during a wildfire. This fact sheet shares guidelines from FireSmart to consider when building a deck or as ongoing home maintenance.
FireSmart Fact Sheet: Fences
Combustible wood fences and boardwalks create a direct line to your home and can contribute to the spread of wildfire. Learn about FireSmart guidelines for planning an upgrade to your fence and ongoing home maintenance.
FireSmart Fact Sheet: Gutters, Eaves, and Vents
The gutters on your home provide a place for combustible debris to accumulate and can be ignited by embers during a wildfire. Learn about FireSmart guidelines for planning an upgrade to your gutters, eaves, and vents and as part of your ongoing home maintenance.
FireSmart Fact Sheet: Permanent Wood Foundations
This fact sheet explains the use of Permanent Wood Foundations and shares recommendations from FireSmart to reduce structures’ vulnerability to ignition from wildfire.
FireSmart Fact Sheet: Roofs
The roof is the most vulnerable component of your home. Learn about FireSmart guidelines for planning an upgrade to your roof and as part of your ongoing home maintenance.
FireSmart Fact Sheet: Shipping Containers
Shipping containers may seem like the ideal storage solution — however, they are not designed to withstand wildfire conditions and can pose serious safety risks. Learn about safer alternatives to shipping containers from FireSmart.
FireSmart Fact Sheet: Siding
Some types of siding materials can melt when exposed to high temperatures, allowing the fire to penetrate the interior of the building. Learn about FireSmart guidelines for planning an upgrade to your siding and as part of your ongoing home maintenance.
FireSmart Fact Sheet: Windows and Doors
Flames and radiant heat can break the glass in a window and allow fire to enter the interior of a home. Learn about FireSmart guidelines for planning an upgrade to your windows and doors and as part of your ongoing home maintenance.
FireSmart Fact Sheet: Yard
Living where wildfires can occur puts our homes at risk, but it is possible to live safely and resiliently with wildfire. Learn about FireSmart guidelines for planning an upgrade to your yard and as part of your ongoing home maintenance.
FireSmart Landscaping Guide
This guide was developed to introduce you to FireSmart landscaping—a practical and science-backed approach to creating resilient outdoor spaces that are also beautiful. By carefully landscaping your outdoor spaces, your home is more likely to survive a wildland fire event. Many FireSmart principles are easy to implement, and every small action can have an impact.
FireSmart Resources
The full suite of FireSmart Canada resources, including educational materials like brochures, manuals, fact sheets, and checklists on the Home Ignition Zone, how to mitigate wildfire on your property, best practices for structure protection, and more.
FireSmart Wildfire Exposure Assessment
This guide explains the Wildfire Exposure Assessment. You will learn about the steps taken to complete the assessment and the meaning of the results. You may be a homeowner, a municipal or government employee, a FireSmart consultant, or part of the many other organizations involved in protecting communities from wildfire. If you are concerned about protecting your home, neighbourhood or other values from wildland fire, the findings of a Wildfire Exposure Assessment can help you take action – and this guide explains how it all works.
Guidance for cleaner air spaces during wildfire smoke events
Smoke from wildfires produces a variety of pollutants that can have an impact on human health. Exposure to these pollutants may be reduced by choosing to remain indoors during a wildfire event and taking steps to limit infiltration of these pollutants, while controlling other factors associated with poor indoor air quality. This guide includes recommendations for selecting or retrofitting a building to be used as a cleaner air space and operational considerations during a wildfire event.
Home Ignition Zone for Indigenous and Northern Communities
Learn about the ignition zones around structures and what elements can affect your community's risk of wildland fire.
ICLR’s Better/Best advice for Wildfire
An average of 8,000 wildfires burn an average of 2.5 million hectares of forest each year in Canada. The following provides info on key areas that may require attention in order to reduce the risk of wildfire damage to your home.
Information Briefing on Extreme Heat and Poor Air Quality: Advice to Homeowners
Investing in a climate-ready home means preparing for longer, more frequent heatwaves and protecting your family from potentially deadly wildfire smoke.
Information Briefing on Extreme Heat and Poor Air Quality: Advice to Residents
Investing in a climate-ready home means preparing for longer, more frequent heatwaves and protecting your family from potentially deadly wildfire smoke.
Information Briefing on Extreme Heat and Wildfire Smoke: Advice to Residents
Heatwaves and wildfire smoke are deadly. By mid-century, Calgary and Edmonton will have several long heatwaves yearly, each potentially killing hundreds of people. Smoke already kills dozens and injures hundreds. Investing in a climate-ready home means preparing for longer, hotter heatwaves and protecting your indoor air from wildfire smoke. Here’s how.
Lignes directrices relatives aux espaces antifumée pendant les épisodes de fumée de feux de forêt
La fumée des incendies de forêt produit une variété de polluants qui peuvent avoir une incidence sur la santé humaine. L’exposition à ces polluants peut être réduite en choisissant de rester à l’intérieur pendant un incendie de forêt et en prenant des mesures pour limiter l’infiltration de ces polluants, tout en contrôlant d’autres facteurs associés à une mauvaise qualité de l’air à l’intérieur. Voici une liste de recommandations quant au choix ou à la rénovation d’un bâtiment choisi comme espace antifumée et des mesures à considérer lors d’un feu de forêt.
Make your business wildfire ready
No one thing prevents wildfire risk completely – the solution requires a system. Research has shown there are clear steps you can take to give your commercial building a much better chance of surviving an encounter with wildfire. This guide provides four sets of steps that are grouped to provide the most impact for the time and cost involved. Get started today and be wildfire ready.
Préparez votre entreprise aux feux incontrôlés
Aucun élément ne permet de prévenir complètement les risques de feux incontrôlés – la solution passe par un système. Des recherches ont montré qu’il existe des mesures claires que vous pouvez prendre pour donner à votre bâtiment commercial de meilleures chances de survivre à un feu incontrôlé. Ce guide propose quatre séries d’étapes qui sont regroupées pour avoir le plus d’impact possible en termes de temps et de coût. Commencez dès aujourd’hui et soyez prêt pour les feux incontrôlés.
Protect your home from Wildfire: FireSmart Begins At Home Guide
By extending our lifestyles and communities further into forested areas, also referred to as the Wildland Urban Interface, we become more exposed to the danger of wildland fire, and this may put your home at risk. It is possible, however, to live safely with this natural event! The recommendations in this guide will help you reduce the risk of wildland fire to your home and neighbourhood.
Protégez votre maison contre les incendies de forêt : Guide soyez intelli-feu à domicile
En étendant nos modes de vie et nos collectivités plus loin dans les zones forestières (aussi appelées « le milieu périurbain »), nous nous exposons davantage au danger des feux de forêt, augmentant les risques pour nos collectivités. Cependant, il est possible de jouir d’un bon niveau de sécurité malgré la présence de cet événement naturel! Les recommandations fournies par le présent guide réduiront les risques liés aux feux de forêt auxquels votre résidence et votre quartier sont exposés.
Wildfire home protection advice: Better/Best: Retrofit
This document is a set of general guidelines, including enhanced and comprehensive measures, to help increase the resilience of new construction/renovation projects.