Jeff Parr
Founder, WildFire-Ready — building public-interest wildfire infrastructure from Western Canada.
Mission
WildFire-Ready exists because wildfire information in Canada is scattered across a dozen government agencies, each with its own map, its own data feed, and its own update cadence. Residents in wildfire-exposed communities shouldn't have to bookmark seven government dashboards just to know whether a fire near them is growing. They should be able to open one app, see what's burning, see how close it is to them, and see what they're meant to do.
That's the entire mission: aggregate the official Canadian data cleanly, present it bilingually, and put it in front of people for free. No advertising. No paywall. No selling user attention to fund the project. WildFire-Ready is a companion to 911 and to provincial emergency services — not a replacement.
WildFire-Ready
The app launched in 2026 covering British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. It surfaces live fire perimeters, satellite heat detections from NASA FIRMS and ESA Sentinel-2, air quality readings from Environment and Climate Change Canada, evacuation orders from each province's emergency alert system, road closures from DriveBC and 511 Alberta, and per-region fire danger ratings from the Canadian Wildland Fire Information System. Everything links back to the publishing agency so people can verify critical details before they act on them.
The mobile app is fully anonymous — no account, no email, no sign-in. Saved locations, notification preferences, and language settings live on-device only. The website at wildfire-ready.ca mirrors the same data for desktop research from home.
Approach
Three rules shape every product decision:
- Verified before viral. Every claim, every alert, every status badge traces back to a named government source. The app does not generate independent assessments of fire severity or spread; it relays what BC Wildfire Service, Alberta Wildfire, NASA, ECCC, and the provinces publish — and links back to them.
- Year-round, not just fire season. Preparedness checklists, FireSmart guidance, and structure-protection information are available whenever a household is ready to engage, not only during an active incident. People prepare in January for fires in July.
- Companion, not replacement. The app's home screen makes the dispatch numbers — 911, BC's 1-800-663-5555, Alberta's 310-FIRE — one tap away. When in doubt, call. WildFire-Ready is meant to make 911 calls better-informed, not to compete with them.
Values
- Free forever. No advertising, no in-app purchases, no premium tier. Funded by grants and partnerships, not by selling user attention.
- Bilingual at launch. Full English and Canadian French parity from day one — not as an afterthought.
- Canadian data residency. User-side data stays in Canada. The mobile app is anonymous; the backend runs on Canadian infrastructure where possible.
- Open about limits. When data is stale, the app says so. When a feature is province-specific, the app says so. When the project is funded by a grant, the disclaimer page lists it.
- Non-profit incorporation in progress. Working toward formal Canadian non-profit status so funding can flow cleanly from public-safety grants and community sponsors.
Contact
Email team@wildfire-ready.ca for partnerships, grant inquiries, agency data-source questions, or press. The project's Discord community is the public conversation space for testers, contributors, and wildfire-curious neighbours.