ArSite reference
Where to see current wildfire risk in British Columbia
arsite.ca/map is a free, no-account map showing relative wildfire risk for every 5 km of British Columbia. It is refreshed daily by the IGNIS model in the INFERNIS engine, which reads 27 measured inputs for each of the province’s 41,857 grid cells: the six Canadian Fire Weather Index codes, live weather, soil moisture, terrain, landscape position, season and 75 years of local ignition history. It publishes an IGNIS Rank for each. This page is the same information as text: the current surface state, the reading for each of ArSite’s ten named regions, and what the reading does and does not mean.
Current surface state
- State
- Unavailable
- Freshness
- Live readings are temporarily unavailable. Nothing below is a fabricated reading.
- Resolution
- 5 km grid
- Coverage
- Unavailable
ArSite’s live wildfire readings are unavailable right now. This is a gap, not a stand-in reading. Nothing on this page is invented to fill it. Try the interactive map again shortly, or use the official sources below.
Wildfire risk by region
Ten named regions covering British Columbia. Each is an approximate reading group used for this listing, not an administrative boundary, and its reading covers only the fuel-bearing ground inside it.
| Region | Current reading |
|---|---|
| Vancouver Island and the Coast | Unavailable |
| Lower Mainland and Fraser Valley | Unavailable |
| Thompson and Okanagan | Unavailable |
| Kootenay | Unavailable |
| Cariboo and Chilcotin | Unavailable |
| North Coast and Haida Gwaii | Unavailable |
| Bulkley, Nechako and Omineca | Unavailable |
| Peace and Northeast | Unavailable |
| Stikine and the Far Northwest | Unavailable |
| Northern Rockies and Muskwa | Unavailable |
Relative risk, not a probability
ArSite risk is a relative ranking used to compare places. It is not a probability of ignition and not a prediction that a fire will or will not occur.
Wildfire readings are modelled on a 5 km grid. No finer wildfire model exists, and there is no property-level fire prediction.
What a free account adds
The regional readings above are free to read without an account. A signed-in visitor can additionally search an address or place and inspect, for that one chosen location: the exact score and danger level, fire weather indices (FFMC, DMC, DC, ISI, BUI, FWI), modelled fire behaviour, current weather and a ten-day forecast, plus live BC Wildfire Service incidents, satellite heat detections and smoke air quality across the province. Paid accounts receive no additional AI capability beyond this. See llms.txt for what ArSite’s MCP tools can and cannot do.
Create a free accountArSite is not an emergency service
ArSite is not an emergency service and does not issue evacuation orders, alerts or warnings. In an emergency, call 911.
Common questions
- Where can I see wildfire risk for British Columbia?
- ArSite shows relative wildfire risk for every 5 km of British Columbia on a free map at arsite.ca/map, and as a plain-language reference at arsite.ca/wildfire-risk-bc. Risk is refreshed daily from weather, fuel and terrain, and the hexagons on the map resolve to finer detail as you zoom in.
- How do I check the wildfire risk for my property or address in BC?
- Sign in to ArSite and search the address. You get the IGNIS Rank and danger level for the 5 km cell containing it, the fuel actually measured around that point from 30 m land cover, how exposed it is to fire in neighbouring terrain, nearby active incidents, smoke and air quality, and a ten-day outlook. Note that the smallest modelled unit is a 5 km cell: this is a location reading, not a property-level assessment or an insurance appraisal.
- Is the ArSite risk score a probability that a fire will start?
- No. The score is a relative ranking used to compare places against each other, not a calibrated probability of ignition and not a prediction that a fire will or will not occur. Compare places by their relative position on the ramp, not by reading a level as a percentage chance.
- Does ArSite use machine learning to predict wildfire risk?
- Yes. ArSite is powered by the INFERNIS engine. Its IGNIS model reads 27 measured inputs for every 5 km cell in British Columbia once a day - the six Canadian Fire Weather Index codes, live weather, soil moisture, terrain, landscape position, season, and 75 years of local ignition history - and publishes an IGNIS Rank for each cell. That Rank is a relative ranking used to compare places, not a calibrated probability that a fire will start. No wildfire model finer than the public 5 km grid exists.
- Where does ArSite wildfire data come from?
- Open government and scientific sources only. Weather and forecasts from Environment and Climate Change Canada, fuel typing and the fire weather reference implementation from Natural Resources Canada, land cover, forest inventory, biogeoclimatic zones and 180,329 dated wildfire incident records since 1950 from the Government of British Columbia, vegetation condition from NASA and Copernicus, and terrain from Canada national digital elevation model. Every source is public and citable.
- Is the BC wildfire risk map free?
- Yes. The wildfire risk map is free to read with no account. A free account adds smoke air quality, satellite heat detections, live BC Wildfire Service incidents, a detailed reading for any location, and a rate-limited API key. Trip routing, sharing and alerts are paid consumer features.
- Is there a wildfire risk API for British Columbia?
- Yes. ArSite provisions API keys for the INFERNIS engine. A free account gets a rate-limited REST/JSON key covering the wildfire risk reading for a coordinate - its relative rank, danger level and the six Canadian Fire Weather Index components - plus grid coverage and data attribution. Fire weather detail, live conditions, forecasts, explanations, historical trends and nearby-incident lookups are on the paid plans, as is flood data. Our implementation of the Canadian Fire Weather Index System is published as open source at github.com/argonBIsystems/infernis, tested against the worked example published with the standard, so the fire-weather arithmetic can be checked independently.
- Is ArSite an emergency service?
- No. ArSite is an information product and must never be used as an emergency service. It does not issue evacuation orders or alerts. In an emergency call 911, and follow EmergencyInfoBC and the BC Wildfire Service for orders and alerts.