Wildland fire evacuations in Canada from 1980 to 2021

Abstract

Background

Every year, people in Canada are evacuated due to wildland fires to avoid death, injury, and illness from fire and smoke events.

Aims

In this paper, we provide an overview of evacuations recorded in the Canadian Wildland Fire Evacuation Database between 1980 and 2021.

Methods

Our analysis covers evacuations in Canada from 1980 to 2021. We provide summary statistics including number of evacuations and evacuees, evacuation duration, seasonality, evacuation causes, community types, structure losses, and fatalities. We also investigate temporal and spatial patterns.

Key results

Between 1980 and 2021, there were 1393 wildland fire evacuation events with 576,747 people evacuated. During this period, there was an overall increase in frequency of evacuations, number of evacuees, and duration of events. Structure loss occurred during 194 evacuation events, with 4105 homes burned. We estimate wildland fire evacuations cost at least CAD3.7 billion (excluding structural losses), jumping to CAD4.6 billion if we include productivity losses. Indigenous peoples are disproportionately impacted in wildfire evacuations compared to the general Canadian population.

Conclusions

Wildland fire evacuations continue to occur across Canada and are increasing.

Implications

The findings from this study give us a better understanding of the characteristics of wildland fire evacuations, which can help guide emergency management.