Deep in a lab at the National Research Council of Canada in Ottawa, Ontario, a fire-breathing machine dubbed "baby dragon" spits out ember showers for researchers. And in the sky, researchers from the Aerospace Research Centre aboard the Twin Otter, one of the NRC's research aircraft, sample smoke plumes from intense wildfires over the Prairies that spread across North America. Meanwhile, on the ground after another wildfire, scientists from the Construction Research Centre examine the aftermath of the fires to analyze the impact they had on homes and on the ecosystem.
With climate change raising temperatures and leading to droughts, wildfires have become not only more frequent but also more dangerous and devastating. Canada sees about 6,000 wildfires each year, with the 2016 Horse River wildfire outside Fort McMurray, Alberta, being the worst in the country's history to that point. In 2023, record-breaking fires in Canada burned across over 18 million hectares of land, more than 6 times the average of 2.7 million hectares a year.
The NRC's efforts to better understand such fires are an encouraging step forward. In 2016, the Construction Research Centre began conducting wildfire research under our former Climate Resilient Buildings and Core Public Infrastructure Initiative, supported by Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada.launched another project, Resilience and Adaptation to Climatic Extreme Wildfires, supported by the NRC's Ideation Fund. The aim of this project is to evaluate what is being done in wildfire research across Canada and internationally and identify where the NRC can contribute.
"We started by locating existing research and conducting gap analyses," says Dr. Noureddine Bénichou, NRC principal research officer and technical lead for the project. "We then built a team of 12 researchers from different backgrounds with complementary skills." Their areas of expertise are fire-scenario modelling, computer science, psychology and mechanical, civil and environmental engineering. The team's work focused on investigating causes and effects such as how wildfires develop and spread, affecting communities and the ecosystem.
The team's ongoing efforts have increased knowledge and developed guidance to inform and support policymakers, urban planners, emergency responders, regulators, peer researchers and other stakeholders. The team also works with Canadian and international collaborators that bring unique research expertise to the table. Together, these groups develop tools, methods and guidelines that can be used in real-world situations to support communities in Canada.
Smoking out the details
In addition to creating dangerous flames, wildfires produce clouds of smoke that are a mix of harmful gases and fine particles from the burning matter that can travel thousands of kilometres from the fire zone.
To better understand the impact of wildfire smoke and how to help protect affected communities, the NRC's Construction and Aerospace research centres are collaborating with academic partners in a multi-disciplinary project supported by the Climate Resilient Built Environment Initiative. Aboard a research aircraft, NRC Aerospace researchers take samples of wildfire smoke while, on the ground, Construction researchers test filters designed to remove smoke particles from the air entering homes. Work by other partners includes a field study in areas around exposed communities (University of Victoria), investigations of human behaviour (University of Alberta) and building a numerical model to predict indoor air quality when exposed to wildfire smoke (Université de Sherbrooke).
Another serious threat during wildfires is embers—specks of burning debris that can travel through the air and ignite buildings far from the original flames. "They act erratically, so measuring how their behaviour changes while airborne is critical to understanding how they propagate fires," says NRC associate research officer Dr. Islam Gomaa. To that end, the research team at the fire safety testing facility carried out a controlled experiment to test the probability of ignition in construction materials exposed to the combined hazards of embers and radiation from wildfires. The results were published in 2024 in the Journal of Physics: Conference Series. Consult the open access article, Experimental investigations on ember- and radiation-coupled ignition in fuel beds.
The results of these and other experiments are being used to train new technologies using artificial intelligence and machine learning to provide even better ways of identifying where fires start and how they will spread, before they reach communities.
A roadmap to wildfire management
A gap analysis conducted by the NRC in 2016 revealed that there was no existing national guidance or standards for managing wildfires. "We assembled an international committee to develop the first such guide in Canada," says Dr. Bénichou, the National Guide for Wildland–Urban Interface Fires. Published in 2021 and supported by the former Climate Resilient Buildings and Core Public Infrastructure Initiative, the guide has gained considerable attention, with more than 10,000 downloads so far.
In 2021, a third-party impact analysis of the National Guide for Wildland–Urban Interface Fires calculated the benefits of applying its guidelines throughout Canada in wildfire-prone areas. The report concluded that, if communities implemented the recommendations over a 10-year period, it could potentially generate $470 billion in long-term fire savings nationally in new and retrofitted existing housing stock and save 2,300 lives. Using the guide nationally could also avoid 9,000 injuries and 9,000 instances of post-traumatic stress disorder and generate about 19,000 long-term jobs.
According to Dr. Bénichou, various sections of the guide's recommended measures for rebuilding are being considered gradually by municipalities and other authorities with jurisdiction over construction in Canada. For example, the guide is informing Pacific Economic Development Canada's Lytton Homeowner Resilient Rebuild Program and can help advise broader discussions on wildfire resilience across the country.
"The guide is the centrepiece of our work, with evidence-based measures backed up by research that supports implementation strategies," says Dr. Bénichou, who was named the 2022 Fire Researcher of the Year by the Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs and, in 2023, received a Public Service Award of Excellence. His work on the global stage and the team's holistic approach to these growing challenges have positioned Canada as an international leader in wildfire prevention and management.