How FireRadar uses CWFIS
The Canadian Wildland Fire Information System remains an important upstream national source for FireRadar. It is no longer presented as a competing map mode. FireRadar now treats CWFIS as national continuity, validation, historical, and scientific context underneath the main Wildfires experience.
One public wildfire layer
FireRadar prioritizes direct public incident feeds from provincial and territorial wildfire authorities wherever a confirmed integration is available. Users should not have to choose between a FireRadar wildfire layer and a second CWFIS wildfire layer. When validated national continuity is needed, FireRadar can include it inside the Wildfires experience with distinct provenance rather than silently presenting it as a direct local record.
Direct authorities first
BC Wildfire Service, Alberta Wildfire, Ontario AFFES, SOPFEU, and the other integrated jurisdiction authorities remain FireRadar's preferred operational incident sources. Their source wording, timestamps, cause, size, and identifiers are preserved where published.
CWFIS as a national backstop
When a direct incident source is unavailable, degraded, or not integrated, validated CWFIS records can provide national continuity. Those records retain a separate national-source identity and are not relabelled as provincial or territorial authority records.
CWFIS remains useful to FireRadar even without a layer toggle
Continuity
Provide explicitly labelled national records when direct jurisdiction coverage cannot provide a current usable incident record.
Reconciliation
Help FireRadar detect missing incidents, source-count anomalies, coordinate differences, and other potential feed-quality problems.
Historical context
Support long-range Canadian wildfire history through national datasets such as the Canadian National Fire Database and national burned-area products where appropriate.
Scientific context
Remain the authoritative home for Canadian fire-weather, fire-danger, fire-behaviour, forecasting, and related scientific products that FireRadar should consume rather than reproduce.
Prince Edward Island and Nunavut
FireRadar currently has no confirmed direct active-fire incident feed wired for Prince Edward Island or Nunavut. National continuity may therefore provide supplementary incident context in those jurisdictions, but FireRadar does not present that as direct local-authority coverage or convert unavailable direct totals into zero.
Use the right system for the right job
FireRadar focuses on a consistent public wildfire-information experience: current incidents, provenance, smoke, air quality, history, changes, saved items, and monitoring. CWFIS and Natural Resources Canada remain the stronger scientific domain for national fire-weather indices, fire-behaviour modelling, fuel products, seasonal outlooks, climatology, and long-term national research datasets.