Is Your Home Wildfire-Ready?
A plain FireSmart checklist for getting a home ready for fire season — tick what you've done and see what to do next, the highest-impact steps first.
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A plain FireSmart checklist for getting a home ready for fire season — tick what you've done and see what to do next, the highest-impact steps first.
Loading the latest information…
Getting a home ready for wildfire isn't one big project — it's a list of small ones, and they aren't all equal. Tick off what you've already done and this shows what's worth doing next, starting with the few things that protect a house the most.
Why this matters in Yellowknife
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You've done 0 of 7 highest-impact steps.
These are the highest-impact steps first. Tick off what you've already done and the list updates.
Embers travel ahead of a fire and find the weak points — the roof, the gutters, the vents. Close them first.
A gutter full of dry needles is one of the most common places a home catches from an ember.
Most homes that burn are lost to embers getting inside, not flames outside.
A bigger project, but the roof is the largest target a home presents to falling embers.
FireSmart calls this the immediate zone, and it's the most important. Embers collect right against the walls, and anything that burns here takes the flame straight to the house.
This strip decides more homes than anything else.
Stacked fuel against a wall turns a passing ember into a house fire.
The space under a deck is a classic ember trap.
The intermediate zone. Break up the fuel so a fire on the ground can't climb or carry its way to the house.
Low spruce branches are a ladder that takes a ground fire up into the canopy.
The extended zone. Further out, thin the fuel so a fire arrives smaller and slower.
In 2023 the whole city left down one road. Plan for that before a fire starts, not during one.
In an evacuation, minutes of warning matter — the 2023 order moved fast.
Highway 3 to Alberta is about 1,500 km and the only drivable way south.
Crews and buses need to find you fast, day or night.
Nothing here is saved or sent — it's just for you, on this page.
These steps follow FireSmart Canada's Home Ignition Zone guidance — the immediate (0–1.5 m), intermediate (1.5–10 m) and extended (10–30 m) zones, plus hardening the house against embers. They are the widely agreed basics; FireSmart NWT can tell you what your specific property needs.
This restates the wildfire-preparedness guidance fire agencies share — it's general information, not a professional defensible-space assessment, and it can't promise a home will survive a fire or that an insurer will reinstate cover. Your fire authority's requirements come first; the channels above are where to confirm what your property needs.
Source: FireSmart Canada — Home Ignition Zone guidance, checked 23 July 2026 (6 days ago).
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