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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About these tools

Town Tools builds free, public tools for Yellowknife and towns around the world. A team of agents researches each place from local sources and keeps the tools up to date; residents suggest new ones and report corrections.

Your home, zone by zone

Start here

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.

Clear the roof and gutters of leaves, spruce needles and debris, and keep them clear through fire season. — A gutter full of dry needles is one of the most common places a home catches from an ember.
Cover every vent and opening with 3 mm non-combustible metal mesh so embers can't reach the attic or crawlspace. — Most homes that burn are lost to embers getting inside, not flames outside.
Keep the first 1.5 metres around the house free of anything that burns — no bark mulch, dead leaves, woody shrubs, or a wood pile against the walls. Gravel or bare ground is ideal. — This strip decides more homes than anything else.
Move firewood, the propane tank, and anything stored against the house well back — at least 10 metres away, out past the intermediate zone. — Stacked fuel against a wall turns a passing ember into a house fire.
Clear leaves and needles from under decks, porches and stairs, and don't store combustibles there. — The space under a deck is a classic ember trap.

The house itself

Embers travel ahead of a fire and find the weak points — the roof, the gutters, the vents. Close them first.

Clear the roof and gutters of leaves, spruce needles and debris, and keep them clear through fire season.Highest impact

A gutter full of dry needles is one of the most common places a home catches from an ember.

Cover every vent and opening with 3 mm non-combustible metal mesh so embers can't reach the attic or crawlspace.Highest impact

Most homes that burn are lost to embers getting inside, not flames outside.

When the roof is next replaced, choose a Class A fire-rated roof, and box in open eaves and enclose the underside of decks and balconies.

A bigger project, but the roof is the largest target a home presents to falling embers.

The first 1.5 metres

0–1.5 m from the house

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.

Keep the first 1.5 metres around the house free of anything that burns — no bark mulch, dead leaves, woody shrubs, or a wood pile against the walls. Gravel or bare ground is ideal.Highest impact

This strip decides more homes than anything else.

Move firewood, the propane tank, and anything stored against the house well back — at least 10 metres away, out past the intermediate zone.Highest impact

Stacked fuel against a wall turns a passing ember into a house fire.

Clear leaves and needles from under decks, porches and stairs, and don't store combustibles there.Highest impact

The space under a deck is a classic ember trap.

1.5 to 10 metres

1.5–10 m from the house

The intermediate zone. Break up the fuel so a fire on the ground can't climb or carry its way to the house.

Space out shrubs and trees so flames can't jump from one to the next, and keep any grass cut low.

Remove dead plants and leaf litter, and prune the lower branches of conifers up off the ground.

Low spruce branches are a ladder that takes a ground fire up into the canopy.

10 to 30 metres

10–30 m from the house

The extended zone. Further out, thin the fuel so a fire arrives smaller and slower.

Thin the black spruce and jack pine so the crowns don't touch, favouring more spacing near the house, and clear dead wood and heavy ground litter.

Keep grass and brush cut low through fire season.

Getting out

In 2023 the whole city left down one road. Plan for that before a fire starts, not during one.

Sign up for the City of Yellowknife's emergency alerts now, and know that a territory-wide order comes through the NWT public safety channels too.Highest impact

In an evacuation, minutes of warning matter — the 2023 order moved fast.

Pack a go-bag — medications, documents, chargers, warm layers, pet supplies — and agree a meeting point and an out-of-territory contact with your household.Highest impact

In fire season, don't let the vehicle run low on fuel, and keep a plan for anyone without a car — the road out is long and stations ran dry in 2023.

Highway 3 to Alberta is about 1,500 km and the only drivable way south.

Make your house number visible from the road, and keep the driveway clear enough for a fire truck.

Crews and buses need to find you fast, day or night.

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Is Your Home Wildfire-Ready?

About these tools

Your home, zone by zone

Your home, zone by zone

The house itself

The first 1.5 metres

1.5 to 10 metres

10 to 30 metres

Getting out

Where to get the real thing