The FireHard system — including the WER rating, technical documents, and design guides — is a voluntary framework based on current best practices from wildfire research in Canada, the United States, and Australia. It is not a building code, regulation, or mandatory standard.
FireSmart protects your property from the outside in. WER protects your building from the inside out. Together they cover the full picture.
FireSmart Canada is a nationally recognized program developed and maintained by the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC). It focuses on landscape-level wildfire resilience: vegetation management, defensible space, community planning, and homeowner awareness. It is the established authority on what happens around your home.
The FireHard Wildfire Exposure Rating (WER) system and response guides focus on the building itself — construction specifications for the roof, walls, openings, vents, decks, and attachments that determine whether a structure can resist ember attack, radiant heat, and direct flame contact.
These are not competing programs. They address different parts of the same problem.
Scope: Vegetation management, defensible space zones, community planning, homeowner education, neighbourhood-level programs.
Strengths: Nationally recognized. Government-backed. Established community programs (FireSmart Community Recognition). Well-developed homeowner education materials. Strong municipal engagement framework.
Limitations: Does not provide specification-grade (detailed enough to build from) building construction details. Does not define measurable building resistance levels. Limited integration with insurance underwriting requirements.
Scope: Building envelope specifications, material requirements, construction details, FireHard level design guides, and insurance documentation.
Strengths: Specification-grade construction details. Binary pass/fail criteria. Four measurable resistance levels. Insurance-ready documentation. Draws from NIST, IBHS, and AS 3959 research.
Limitations: New system — not yet adopted by standards bodies. Does not cover landscape-level vegetation management in depth. Limited community program infrastructure. Single-developer origin (offered for broader adoption).
Do both. Complete a FireSmart assessment for your property's landscape and vegetation. Use the WER system for your building envelope. A home with a FireSmart-managed landscape and a WER-rated building envelope has addressed both sides of the wildfire exposure equation.
If your community has a FireSmart Community Recognition program, participate in it. If your home is in the wildland-urban interface, also assess your building envelope with WER. These are additive protections.
FireHard Module 5 (Fencing, Landscaping & Site) deliberately focuses on the elements that connect the landscape to the building — fencing materials, hardscape perimeter zones, ground cover within 1.5m — and defers to FireSmart for broader vegetation management guidance.
The WER system is offered as an open framework for adoption and integration with existing Canadian wildfire resilience programs, including FireSmart. We welcome collaboration with CIFFC, provincial building authorities, CSA, ULC, and other standards organizations to integrate building envelope specifications into Canada's wildfire resilience framework. Contact us →
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