How FireRadar handles Canadian wildfire data

Current wildfire tracking across Canada

FireRadar combines the latest available wildfire information on one map, validates and republishes connected official data on its current production schedule, and keeps official incidents, national fallback records, satellite detections, and smoke forecasts clearly separated.

Canada-wide sources on one map

FireRadar combines provincial, territorial, national, satellite, and smoke information on one map so you do not have to search through separate government viewers.

Direct official status first

FireRadar uses direct provincial or territorial feeds as the primary source for active-fire status, size, cause, and update information.

Continuously operated current tracking

FireRadar checks connected official-wildfire sources on a controlled production schedule and republishes a current snapshot only after validation succeeds. Timing still depends on when the responsible agency publishes new information.

How FireRadar decides what to show

The closest official source is the source of truth

Canadian wildfire information is published by many different agencies. FireRadar prioritizes the direct agency responsible for each province or territory. A broader national dataset can still be useful, but it is not allowed to silently replace a newer local status.

Primary view

Direct official fires

The default map prioritizes current records published directly by provincial and territorial wildfire agencies. These records drive FireRadar's main active-fire counts and province summaries.

Optional national context

CWFIS national records

CWFIS is kept as a separate, clearly labelled layer. It can provide useful Canada-wide context, but it may lag a provincial source or retain an older status. FireRadar does not let it override a fresher direct provincial or territorial record.

Satellite observation

NASA FIRMS hotspots

Satellite hotspots show recent thermal detections. They can help reveal possible fire activity, but they are not confirmed wildfire incidents and are never added to official fire totals.

Official model forecast

ECCC FireWork smoke

The smoke layer displays Environment and Climate Change Canada's FireWork forecast for the selected hour. It is model guidance, not a live air-quality reading or a wildfire incident layer.

How data stays current

FireRadar's production scheduler controls how often connected official-wildfire sources are checked and can evolve without changing the meaning of the public data. Source timestamps remain separate from FireRadar ingestion timestamps so a recent fetch is never presented as a newer official agency update.

Ingestion health is monitored

FireRadar monitors scheduler state, source health, ingestion outcomes, and stale or failed delivery paths. A watchdog provides a recovery path if automated wildfire ingestion becomes overdue, while source-specific health checks keep upstream failures visible instead of treating them as zero activity.

What happens when a feed fails

A failed, incomplete, or suspiciously empty request does not wipe the map. FireRadar preserves the last complete valid snapshot and keeps different sources isolated so one upstream problem cannot corrupt every jurisdiction.

No invented values

Missing size, cause, date, or status fields remain unavailable. FireRadar does not turn missing data into zero, guess an incident status, or combine nearby markers simply because they may represent the same event.

What real-time means here

FireRadar continuously operates its ingestion, validation, publication, and monitoring systems, but it cannot display a change before the responsible agency publishes it. For urgent local decisions, always confirm with the responsible authority.

Accurate does not mean infallible

FireRadar presents the latest valid source information as accurately and clearly as possible, but upstream records can be delayed, incomplete, corrected later, or temporarily unavailable. FireRadar is not an emergency authority, evacuation service, fire-spread prediction system, perimeter guarantee, or substitute for official provincial, territorial, Indigenous, municipal, health, environment, and emergency guidance.

We built FireRadar to make official Canadian wildfire information easier to understand without hiding where the data came from or what it cannot prove.

— The FireRadar team