Helping Canadians Prepare for Wildfire Smoke at Home: Intact Centre for Climate Adaptation
New Climate-Ready Guide: Three Steps to Cost-Effective Wildfire Smoke Protection at Home
Waterloo, ON (June 29, 2026) – Wildfire smoke is becoming a national health issue, affecting communities both near and far from active wildfires.
Wildfire smoke can travel thousands of kilometres from the fire zone, reducing air quality in communities that may not consider themselves at high risk from wildfires. Recent research[1] also shows the scale of health impacts (Romanello et al., 2025). Between 2020 and 2024, exposure to wildfire smoke was associated with an estimated annual average of 1,400 deaths in Canada. Smoke from Canada’s 2023 wildfire season is also estimated to have contributed to more than 80,000 premature deaths globally.
The impacts can also be immediate. During a heavy smoke episode in Ontario in June 2023, asthma-related emergency department visits increased by 23.6% one day after the smoke arrived, with visits among children increasing by 40%.
To help residents prepare, the Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation has released a new easy-to-follow guide to help Canadians reduce smoke exposure in their homes. The ‘Wildfire Smoke Protection at Home’ guide translates climate adaptation research into simple actions households can take BEFORE and DURING smoke events. These actions can also help households prepare for periods of reduced outdoor air quality during extreme heat events.
The guide is organized around three steps:
- Prepare before wildfire smoke arrives.
- Improve indoor air during smoke events.
- Upgrade the home to reduce smoke infiltration.
Actions include:
- Downloading the WeatherCAN app to stay updated on ‘Air Quality Health Index’ alert.
- Running your HVAC system on “ON” or ‘recirculation mode’ to continuously filter the indoor air.
- Improving insulation and air sealing in attics and wall cavities to reduce outdoor air infiltration.
The guide is designed for residents, municipalities, community organizations, public health practitioners, and others working to help households prepare for wildfire smoke and other poor air quality events.
Download and share the FREE Wildfire Smoke Protection at Home guide here: Three Steps To Cost-Effective Wildfire Smoke Protection at Home.
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Notes
1. Romanello M, Walawender M, Hsu S, et al. The 2025 report of the Lancet Countdown on health and climate change: climate change action offers a lifeline. The Lancet, 2025; 406, 2804-2857.
About the Intact Centre for Climate Adaptation
The Intact Centre for Climate Adaptation (Intact Centre or ICCA) is an applied research centre at the University of Waterloo. The Intact Centre was founded in 2015 with a gift from Intact Financial Corporation, Canada’s largest property and casualty insurer. The Intact Centre helps homeowners, communities and businesses to reduce risks associated with climate change and extreme weather events. For more information, visit www.intactcentreclimateadaptation.ca.
About the University of Waterloo
The University of Waterloo is Canada’s top innovation university. With more than 42,000 full and part-time students (Fall 2020), the university is home to the world’s largest co-operative education system of its kind. The university’s unmatched entrepreneurial culture, combined with an intensive focus on research, powers one of the top innovation hubs in the world. For more information about Waterloo, please visit uwaterloo.ca.
About Intact Financial Corporation
Intact Financial Corporation (TSX: IFC) is the largest provider of property and casualty (P&C) insurance in Canada, a leading provider of global specialty insurance, and, with RSA, a leader in the U.K. and Ireland. Our business has grown organically and through acquisitions to over $20 billion of total annual premiums. In Canada, Intact distributes insurance under the Intact Insurance brand through a wide network of brokers, including its wholly-owned subsidiary BrokerLink, and directly to consumers through belairdirect. Intact also provides affinity insurance solutions through the Johnson Affinity Groups. In the U.S., Intact Insurance Specialty Solutions provides a range of specialty insurance products and services through independent agencies, regional and national brokers, and wholesalers and managing general agencies. Outside of North America, the Company provides personal, commercial and specialty insurance solutions across the U.K., Ireland, Europe and the Middle East through the RSA brands. For more information, visit www.intactcf.com.
SOURCE: Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation, Faculty of Environment, University of Waterloo
Tags: Intact, Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation, tips, wildfires