Driving in Smoke & Fire
Driving safely through smoke and fire, from low beams and a half-full tank to what to do if a fire blocks the highway.
Drive with low beams and windows up in heavy smoke
High beams in smoke reflect back into your face and make visibility worse — low beams plus recirculated cabin air is the standard rule fire-season drivers are told across the West.
Read more →Check DriveBC and Alberta 511 before any fire-season trip
Major highways close with limited notice during fire season — services like DriveBC, 511 Alberta and state 511 sites update closures in near-real time, but cell signal in smoke-affected corridors is often poor.
Read more →Keep an emergency kit in every vehicle through fire season
A power-bank-charged phone, a paper map, and an N95 respirator are the three items most likely to be missing from a typical vehicle when fire-season trouble starts.
Read more →If a fire blocks the highway, do not drive through smoke and flame
Sheltering on bare gravel or a paved lot is far safer than trying to outrun a fire down a treed highway — radiant heat from roadside vegetation is what ignites most vehicles.
Read more →Keep your tank above half through fire season
In recent western evacuations, gas stations along the route routinely ran dry or lost power within hours — a half-tank rule is what gets you out without queueing.
Read more →RVs and trailers need extra lead time during evacuation
A travel trailer takes roughly an hour longer to prep for evacuation than a car, which is why RV owners need to leave on alert, not on order.
Read more →Do not stop on the highway to take photos of a wildfire
Sightseeing parked cars on a shoulder during a wildfire are one of the most common causes of rear-end collisions and slowed fire-truck response across the West.
Read more →Do not use signal flares or fireworks during fire season
A standard road flare burns at over 1,400 °C — hot enough to ignite dry grass through pavement cracks — which is why LED warning triangles are the fire-season default.
Read more →These articles are the same wildfire safety library that lives inside our free app. Browse every category in the safety library, or open the live map to see current fires and alerts across Western Canada and 18 western US states.