Frequently Asked Questions

Safety is our top priority. Parks Canada uses full suppression (also called a full response) when a wildfire threatens people, communities, critical infrastructure, key access routes, park facilities, or other identified values at risk.

Full suppression involves immediate action to contain and extinguish the fire as quickly as possible using the appropriate personnel, equipment, and aircraft.

Because fire is a natural and important part of the boreal ecosystem, each wildfire is carefully assessed based on its location, proximity to values at risk, weather conditions, fire history, and potential impacts. Parks Canada also incorporates input from Indigenous partners when determining the most appropriate response.

Wildfires that do not pose a threat may be managed through a modified response or monitored response. However, any fire that threatens people, communities, or infrastructure receives a full response.

A modified response is used when a wildfire does not pose an immediate threat to people, communities, infrastructure, or other values at risk, but still requires active management. Parks Canada combines targeted suppression efforts with ongoing monitoring to influence fire behaviour and keep the fire within a predetermined area.

This approach allows Parks Canada to protect identified values at risk, like cabins, infrastructure and communities, while also recognizing the important ecological role that fire plays in maintaining healthy boreal forest ecosystems.

Fire management actions used during a modified response are based on factors such as the fire's location, weather conditions, expected fire behaviour, and proximity to values at risk. It can include significant suppression actions on areas of a fire that Parks Canada is working to contain, while allowing other areas to burn naturally when they benefit the ecosystem and contribute to landscape-level fire risk reduction.

A monitored response is used when a wildfire is not threatening people, communities, infrastructure, access routes, or other identified values at risk. In these situations, Parks Canada actively tracks and assesses the fire's behaviour while allowing it to play its natural role in the ecosystem.

Wood Buffalo National Park is one of the largest protected boreal landscapes in the world, and fire is an important natural process that helps renew forests, create wildlife habitat, and maintain ecological health. When conditions allow, monitored fires can provide these benefits while minimizing impacts to people and park operations.

Fire management staff regularly assess weather, fire behaviour, and potential risks. If conditions change and a fire begins to threaten values at risk, the response strategy can be adjusted, including moving to a modified or full response.

No. A modified response means Parks Canada is actively managing the wildfire but not trying to fully suppress all parts of it. Fire crews may use targeted direct suppression tactics with fire crews on the ground, indirect tactics like ignition, helicopter bucketing, and other tools to influence fire behaviour and keep the fire within a predetermined area and protect values at risk.

Fire management staff continuously assess weather, fire behaviour, and potential impacts. If conditions change and the wildfire begins to threaten values at risk, Parks Canada can increase suppression efforts and change the response strategy.

In Wood Buffalo National Park, the landscape is divided into response zones that help guide wildfire management decisions: red zones receive a full response, yellow zones receive a modified response, and green zones receive a monitored response.

These zones are based on factors such as:

• Proximity to communities and infrastructure
• Infrastructure and other values at risk
• Vegetation and fuel conditions
• Fire history in the area
• Expected fire behaviour
• Natural and constructed barriers, such as rivers, lakes, rock ridges, and firebreaks

When a new wildfire starts, fire specialists conduct additional assessments that consider:

• Current and forecast weather conditions
• Time of year
• Current and potential fire activity
• Availability of firefighters, aircraft, and other resources
• Opportunities to safely contain the fire using natural or constructed barriers

Input from the park’s Indigenous partners is also considered when determining the most appropriate response.

While response zones provide initial guidance, safety is always the top priority. Parks Canada may increase the level of response if conditions change or if there is an increased risk to people, communities, infrastructure, or other identified values. This helps reduce the potential for negative impacts while maintaining fire’s important ecological role in the park.

Fire is a natural and common occurrence in Wood Buffalo National Park, and visitors can often enjoy the park even when there are wildfires burning in remote areas.

Whether it is safe to visit Wood Buffalo National Park during a wildfire depends on several factors, including the fire's location, size, and behaviour. Smoke conditions, road access, and any park closures or restrictions can also affect travel safety.

Before visiting, check the current fire danger rating and stay informed with the latest wildfire updates from Parks Canada and local authorities. Conditions can change, so it's important to be prepared and follow any advisories or evacuation alerts that may be in effect.

There are many factors that influence whether you will experience smoke during your visit. These include but are not limited to wind direction, atmospheric conditions, and wildfire behaviour. In some cases, smoke from wildfires located far away may have a greater impact on air quality than a fire closer to your location. To see where smoke is coming from and how it may affect your area, visit

When a wildfire is near a community or critical infrastructure, Parks Canada works aggressively to contain or extinguish the fire. Through mutual aid agreements and membership in the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre, Parks Canada works with partner wildfire agencies in the Northwest Territories, Alberta and across the country to ensure that fires in Wood Buffalo National Park have the resources required to protect communities.

Parks Canada maintains an active database of cabins and other important locations on the land in Wood Buffalo National Park and will deploys structure protection equipment and crews when fires pose a risk to them. These crews use sprinkler systems; small, planned ignitions; and other suppression tactics like helicopter bucketing to protect property in the park.

Wildland firefighters use two main suppression strategies: direct response and indirect response.

• Direct response is when fire crews work directly on the fire’s edge to suppress flames, build containment lines, and separate burning fuel from unburned fuel. This approach is typically used when fire activity is low to moderate. It often includes using pumps and hose to extinguish hot spots, and using heavy equipment to construct fireguard along the fire’s edge.
• Indirect response in when fire crews establish containment lines away from the fire’s edge. This can be done using natural barriers, favourable terrain, fireguards or landscape features like rivers, wetlands and roads to help contain the fire. Typically, ignition is used to reinforce these lines by burning off fuel between the line and the edge of the fire’s perimeter. This strategy is often used when fire behaviour, weather, or terrain makes direct action unsafe or ineffective.

Helicopters are an important tool in wildfire response. They can transport firefighters, equipment, and supplies to and from the fireline, and are especially useful in remote areas where ground access is impractical.

Helicopters are also used to drop water on hotspots and active flames to help slow fire spread and support crews on the ground. They can target smaller fire areas and can operate in confined terrain such as tight valleys.

In addition, they are used for aerial reconnaissance, allowing fire managers to assess fire behaviour, map fire perimeters, and identify areas of concern.

Helicopters and water bombers cannot extinguish a wildfire alone. While they can be very effective at knocking down flames, cooling hotspots, and slowing a fire's spread by dropping water or retardant on the fire they are typically used to support firefighters on the ground, who build containment lines and extinguish hotspots.

When fires burn intensely enough, water dropped from aircraft can stop being an effective tactic to slow its spread. Convective winds from the fire can keep helicopters and airplanes from flying close to the fires edge and water dropped can evaporate before reaching the ground.

Parks Canada uses heavy equipment when and where appropriate. Bulldozers and excavators are excellent tools for some tasks including creation of fire guards to contain wildland fires. Heavy equipment is not suitable, however, for all terrain and all tasks. Fire crews can work in areas inaccessible to heavy equipment. Fire crews also perform final patrols and extinguishment of fires which cannot be achieved with heavy equipment alone.

When heavy equipment is used, Parks Canada restoration specialists help to reduce the impact they have on the land. This can include working with the equipment when fireguards are being constructed, and working to reclaim fireguards when they are no longer necessary by re-seeding them, remediating compacted soil, and spreading the fallen trees and other woody debris that provides nutrients as it decomposes.

Planned ignition is a wildfire suppression tactic used to remove vegetation and other fuels ahead of an advancing fire. By reducing the amount of fuel available, firefighters can slow a wildfire's spread and help keep it within a specific area.

Planned ignition strengthens containment lines and creates safer working conditions for firefighters. Once an area has burned, there is less fuel available, reducing the chance of the fire spreading into that area again.

Ignitions can be either large or small. Sometimes small scale ignitions, done by hand are used to straighten sections of a fire’s perimeter, reducing the amount of distance firefighters have to work to contain.

Other ignitions can be hundreds or thousands of hectares and are designed to consume fuel and contain the spread of a wildfire to a predetermined area. Large scale ignitions can also be used to help steer a wildfire by understanding how the fire-generated winds from the ignition act on the main fire. This can help keep fire inside a predetermined area.

While planned ignition can involve risks it is always meticulously planned and carried out under specific conditions and is done to contain a wildfire that would likely continue spreading if not conducted.

Planned ignitions require the expert knowledge of professional ignition specialists who have in depth understanding of fire behaviour, weather conditions and ignition tools to minimize risk.

The fire danger rating describes how easily wildfires can start, spread, and become difficult to control based on current and forecast weather conditions.

A higher fire danger rating means fires are more likely to start, spread quickly, and burn intensely. A lower rating means the risk of fire activity is reduced.

Fire danger ratings help inform wildfire preparedness and support decisions about fire restrictions, public safety, and wildfire operations. Because weather conditions change, fire danger ratings can change from day to day.

  Low: Fires are unlikely. A fire will spread slowly, burn at a low intensity and is relatively easy to control for fire crews.

  Moderate: Fires may spread along the surface of the ground with the occasional tree or clump of trees igniting. Ground crews can usually contain these fires.

  High: Fires can ignite easily, spread quickly and be challenging for fire fighters to control.

  Very High: High-intensity fire with partial to full crown involvement. Head fire conditions beyond the ability of ground crews; air attack with retardant required to effectively attack fire's head.

  Extreme: Fires will ignite easily, spread rapidly and burn with extreme intensity. Wildfires burning under these conditions are very difficult for firefighters to control.

Yes. Fire is a natural process known as a natural disturbance. Like flood, windstorms, avalanches and insect outbreaks; fires can rapidly restructure ecosystems. Natural disturbances reshape our natural landscapes. We often view natural disturbances as destructive, but they play a crucial role in keeping ecosystems healthy.

Through time, fire has acted in synergy with other natural processes to shape ecosystems on many levels. Humans, too, have used fire for millennia to improve habitat for game animals or to stimulate food production.

Fire is a natural part of a healthy boreal forest. Both wildfires and prescribed fires play an important role in supporting plants, animals, and ecosystems.

• Creates wildlife habitat: Fire burns unevenly across the landscape, creating a mix of different plant species and ages. This variety helps support many types of wildlife. Regular fire is important for creating a patchwork of habitats that animals can use for food, shelter, and breeding.
• Improves forest health: Fire returns nutrients to the soil through ash, helping plants grow back. It also removes built-up dead trees, shrubs, and other vegetation, which can reduce the risk of larger and more intense wildfires in the future.
• Helps plants grow: Many plants in the boreal forest are adapted to fire. Some species, such as jack pine, depend on fire to open their cones and release seeds. Other plants, like fireweed, are often among the first to grow after a fire, helping the forest recover.
• Benefits wildlife: While some animals may move away from an active fire, many species benefit from the new growth that follows. The nutrients left behind by fire help create fresh vegetation and new habitat. Animals such as wood bison are often seen returning to burned areas to feed on young plants that grow in the nutrient-rich soil.

Over time, fire helps keep the forest healthy, diverse, and resilient by creating new habitat, supporting plant growth, and providing food for wildlife.

You can see the benefits of fire almost immediately. Soil receives an instant boost of nutrients and new types of vegetation sprout within a few weeks of the fire. A variety of herbs, shrubs and tree saplings flourish, providing abundant browse for moose and hares. Fallen trees that die as a result of the fire provide habitat for small mammals and insects, which in turn attract other predatory species. For several years after the fire, the diversity of plants and animals found within burned areas is usually much higher than that of mature forests.

Wildfires can have short-term impacts on people, wildlife, and the environment. They can affect air quality, disrupt travel and recreation, damage property, and impact some plants and wildlife. Heavy rainfall after a fire can also wash ash and sediment into streams, rivers, and ponds, which can affect water quality and aquatic life.

In addition, as the climate changes, wildfires are becoming larger and more severe in many regions. High-intensity wildfires can burn quickly and at extreme temperatures, making it difficult for wildlife to escape. These fires can also burn too intensely damaging soils by consuming organic matter and nutrients. This can affect thousands of hectares of habitat, reducing available food, shelter, and nesting areas for wildlife.

Parks Canada manages wildfires with the goal of protecting people, communities, and infrastructure while maintaining the ecological integrity of the park. Fire is a natural process in many Canadian ecosystems and plays an important role in renewing forests, grasslands, and wildlife habitat.

To minimize ecosystem impacts, Parks Canada:

• Uses the most appropriate wildfire response strategy based on the fire's location, values at risk, and expected behaviour.
• Prioritizes natural fire where appropriate, allowing some wildfires to play their ecological role when they do not threaten public safety or infrastructure.
• Limits ground disturbance during suppression activities by carefully selecting locations for fireguards, access routes, and staging areas.
• Uses planned ignitions strategically to reduce wildfire intensity to help prevent larger, damaging fires.
• Protects sensitive natural and cultural resources, including species at risk habitat, archaeological sites, and culturally significant areas whenever possible.
• Monitors fire effects and ecosystem recovery after a wildfire to better understand impacts and support future management decisions.
• Restores areas affected by suppression activities, if necessary, to help ecosystems recover naturally.

By balancing public safety with ecological considerations, Parks Canada works to reduce unnecessary impacts while recognizing that wildfire is a natural and essential part of many park ecosystems.

Smoke affects people in varying degrees: people with existing heart or respiratory diseases are more susceptible to the smoke’s effects. There may also be an increased risk to older adults, children and pregnant women.

During prescribed fire operations, Parks Canada fire specialists make every effort to limit smoke. Prescribed fires only go ahead if conditions allow smoke to disperse quickly. However, unpredicted changes in weather may increase and redirect smoke.

Wildfire smoke can affect air quality and reduce visibility in communities, even when a fire is far away. Unlike smoke from a prescribed fire, wildfire smoke is harder to manage because wildfires are unplanned, can burn for long periods, and are influenced by changing weather conditions, making it difficult to predict where smoke will travel and how long it will last.