National guide for wildland-urban-interface fires: guidance on hazard and exposure assessment, property protection, community resilience and emergency planning to minimize the impact of wildland-urban interface fires

Fires in the wildland-urban interface (WUI) have become a global issue, with disasters taking place all over the world recently. The drivers of increasing WUI fire risk—increasing population and expansion of urban areas into wildlands, and climate change—are global-scale phenomena. In the coming decades, WUI fire risk is expected to increase both in regions with a long history of fires and in regions that have had been less affected over past decades. WUI fires can cause the ignition of many structures through the spread of flames and radiant heat and the deposition of burning embers over a short period of time. This can overwhelm protection capabilities, lead to large evacuations, and cause disasters with the potential for the total loss of hundreds of structures in a few hours.

The National Research Council of Canada (NRC) identified the need to develop a national guide for WUI fires because of a lack of national guidance addressing the impact of wildland-urban interface (WUI) fires on communities and addressing WUI fires in a holistic manner. Thus, the objective of this Guide is to provide guidance on how to break the WUI fire disaster sequence at various points. The guidance is intended to enhance life safety and property protection by reducing the wildfire threat posed by the surrounding environment and by enhancing the fire protection provided by structures.