Information for Insurance Brokers

The map on the BC Wildfire Dashboard was designed to keep people in B.C. informed about the current wildfire situation. It is not intended to be used as a risk assessment tool for insurance purposes.

During major wildfires, insurance companies may initiate temporary restrictions on the sale of new policies in areas of imminent threat. As the threat eases, the restrictions ease as well. Renewals of existing policies continue to take place, regardless of the threat situation. If you are trying to purchase new insurance in a wildfire threatened area, contact your insurance representative to discuss your options. Insurers have different restrictions, so contacting several insurance providers can be helpful in finding coverage. Any general insurance questions can be directed to Insurance Bureau of Canada’s Consumer Information Centre at 1-844-227-5422 or e-mail askIBCwest@ibc.ca.

To find out the status of an active wildfire, visit the Widfire Situation Map - every active wildfire is assigned a "stage of control". To learn more about any wildfire on our map, click it.

You can also learn more about stages of control. 

If you can no longer see smoke and flames, that doesn’t necessarily mean that a wildfire is completely extinguished. A fire can continue to burn underground and still be considered active even when flames and smoke are not highly visible. There are a number of steps the BC Wildfire Service needs to take to ensure that a fire is completely extinguished. Depending on the fire’s size, location and intensity, this assessment can take anywhere from a few days to a few months to complete. Firefighting crews will continue to patrol a fire to ensure that all hot spots are extinguished before it is called “out”.

The BC Wildfire Service understands that such situations can be frustrating for property owners. However, there is a process in place to ensure that a fire is completely extinguished. The BC Wildfire Service can not call a fire “out” before these steps are completed to satisfy the wishes of an insurance provider. Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC) is the national association representing Canada’s home, business and private auto insurance companies. Affected people can reach out to IBC for general insurance information. Visit IBC’s website.

The BC Wildfire Dashboard updates automatically in real-time. If there is no change to a fire’s data (e.g. it is the same size, the stage of control is unchanged), no changes will be reflected on the map and the updated date will not change. 

The stages of control (and the terminology associated with them) adhere to a Canada-wide standard.

Learn more these stages and wildfire response types.

The most accurate, up-to-date resource information for each fire can be found on the incident page on the Widfire Situation Map.

Many factors must be considered and thresholds must be met before calling a fire out, such as current and future weather forecasts (and how they may impact fire behaviour). There is no timeframe for when this might occur, since every wildfire is different. Therefore, unfortunately, the BC Wildfire Service cannot determine in advance when the fire will be called out. 

The BC Wildfire Service does not provide estimates for when a fire will be called out.

Yes, learn more about stages of control.