Michael A. Jones - PREC* | Royal LePage Kelowna
Yes, you can usually get home insurance on a house near a BC wildfire, and no, insurers are not issuing blanket bans across the Okanagan the moment smoke appears. What happens is narrower: most insurers pause new policies within roughly 25 to 50 kilometres of an active, uncontained fire, the exact distance depends on the company, and that window reopens once BC Wildfire Service downgrades the fire to held or contained. If you're relocating here and buying between May and October, this is the one condition worth understanding before you write an offer, not after.
Wildfire season narrows your insurance options in the Central Okanagan. It does not close them, and the buyers who protect themselves are the ones who build the right condition into their offer before they need it.
What to know:
- • There is no blanket insurance ban during BC wildfire season. Insurers pause new policies by distance from an active, uncontained fire, typically 25 to 50 kilometres, and that radius is set by each insurer, not by the province (Canadian Underwriter, July 2026).
- • The 2023 McDougall Creek fire destroyed 189 structures and cost an estimated $480 million in insured damage (Insurance Bureau of Canada). Real estate deals across the Central Okanagan stalled that season mostly because buyers lost insurance access, not because the fire reached their address.
- • BCFSA recommends a subject-to-insurance condition, sometimes called a wildfire clause, on any offer closing between May and October.
- • A free FireSmart BC home assessment can qualify a property for savings with participating insurers, currently BCAA and Co-operators (FireSmart BC).
- • Two fires make the point at once this season. The Bald Range fire, immediately south of West Kelowna near Summerland and Peachland, grew to roughly 21,145 hectares and remained active and uncontained as of August 17 (BC Wildfire Service). BC Wildfire Service had already declared the Bradley Creek fire near Vernon and Coldstream, farther from Kelowna, held by August 13. Same season, two very different insurer responses, because the radius is set by proximity to the fire, not by the word "Okanagan."
Can you get home insurance on a home near an active BC wildfire?
Usually, yes. The rumor that moves through every Okanagan wildfire season, that insurers simply stop covering the region, is not accurate. What insurers actually do is set a distance from the active, uncontained fire itself, commonly 25 to 50 kilometres, inside which they pause new policies until BC Wildfire Service downgrades the fire (Canadian Underwriter, July 2026). Outside that radius, new coverage keeps issuing normally for the full duration of the fire. This is not theoretical this month: the Bald Range fire remains active and uncontained immediately south of West Kelowna as of mid-August 2026, the largest and closest test this rule has faced in the Central Okanagan since 2023.
This wildfire season, I watched a Central Okanagan listing near an active fire perimeter come off the market, almost certainly over this exact problem. The house itself was fine. The buyer could not bind insurance inside the pause radius, the financing condition could not clear, and the listing agent pulled it rather than let the deal drag through an uncertain fire season. That is the real mechanism. Fire damage rarely kills these deals. A lack of insurance access is the actual killer.
How close is too close? What insurers actually check
Insurers price wildfire risk by distance band from the active fire, not by a single province-wide cutoff. Most stop new policies inside 25 kilometres outright, several extend that pause to 50 kilometres, and a handful will underwrite between 25 and 50 kilometres case by case, weighing the specific property against wind direction, terrain, and containment progress (Canadian Underwriter, July 2026).
| Distance from active fire | Typical insurer response | What a buyer can do |
|---|---|---|
| Under 25 km | Most insurers pause new policies until the fire is held or contained | Ask about incumbent stay on risk through the seller's existing insurer |
| 25 to 50 km | Mixed. Some insurers pause, others underwrite case by case | Get a broker checking multiple insurers at once, not one |
| Over 50 km | New policies generally continue to issue | Confirm anyway. A fast-moving fire can shift the radius within days |
A property's actual address matters more than its city name. The Bald Range fire, burning immediately south of West Kelowna near Summerland and Peachland, prompted a provincial state of emergency and evacuation orders covering more than 20,000 residents (BC Premier's Office, August 2026), and its distance to a specific West Kelowna or Peachland address is a very different number than its distance to a Kelowna address on the other side of the lake. Meanwhile the same week, the Bradley Creek fire near Vernon sat far enough from Kelowna to barely register in most insurers' underwriting for a Kelowna purchase. Ask your broker for the live radius against the specific address, not the general reputation of the region that week.
What is the BCFSA Wildfire Clause, and should it go in your offer?
The BC Financial Services Authority recommends buyers add a subject-to-insurance condition, often called a wildfire clause, to any purchase contract closing between May and October. It gives you a defined window after an accepted offer to confirm a real insurance quote before you remove subjects, instead of assuming coverage will simply be there at completion.
Skip this clause during fire season and you're betting your deposit on an insurer's pause radius never touching your address between offer and completion. I do not let relocating buyers make that bet unknowingly. The clause costs nothing to include and it is the single most useful sentence in a Central Okanagan offer written between May and October.
What happens if a wildfire starts after your offer is already in?
Your subject-to-insurance condition becomes the thing that protects your deposit. If a new fire ignites near the property after the seller accepts your offer but before subject removal, your broker starts checking availability across multiple insurers, and BCFSA's guidance points to a second option: an incumbent stay on risk, where the seller's existing insurer temporarily reissues the policy in your name through closing, even while other insurers hold their pause on new-policy sales in the area.
This is exactly what stalled or collapsed dozens of Central Okanagan real estate transactions during the 2023 McDougall Creek fire, industry reporting on the region's post-fire market found. The buyers lost their insurance, not their homes. That fire destroyed 189 structures and produced an estimated $480 million in insured damage (Insurance Bureau of Canada). The fire itself reached a defined perimeter. The insurance freeze reached much further, and it caught buyers who had no insurance condition in their contract at all. Three years later, that market recovered along the same track as the rest of BC, not along the fire's old boundary. The insurance problem was temporary. It was still real enough to collapse dozens of deals that had no insurance condition to fall back on.
Does FireSmart certification actually lower your premium?
Sometimes, and it's worth doing regardless. FireSmart BC's Wildfire Mitigation Program offers a free home assessment that flags the specific things insurers price: roof material, vent screening, the clearance of flammable brush within the first ten metres of the house, and equipment access to the property. Two insurers, BCAA and Co-operators, currently offer savings to homeowners who complete the assessment and reach FireSmart certification (FireSmart BC).
The discount is not universal across every insurer, so treat certification as risk reduction first and a possible discount second. A property that has already done the work is also the easier property to insure at all when a fire moves inside the pause radius, which matters more than the percentage off the premium.
What should out-of-province buyers know that locals already do?
If you're relocating from Ontario, the Maritimes, or the Prairies, wildfire-linked insurance underwriting is probably new territory. Home insurance in most of those provinces prices flood or wind risk, not a moving radius around an active fire perimeter, so the whole mechanism can catch a first-time BC buyer by surprise mid-transaction. Buyers coming from Vancouver or Calgary have usually seen this before, at least at a distance, since both cities sit inside provinces that carry their own wildfire-adjacent zones.
The fix is the same regardless of where you're moving from. Get your insurance quote in hand before you write the offer, not after, and build the subject-to-insurance condition into the contract if you're closing between May and October. That single habit is the difference between a wildfire season that costs you nothing and one that costs you a deposit.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you get home insurance near an active wildfire in BC?
Usually yes, unless the fire sits very close to the property. There is no province-wide ban on insuring homes during wildfire season. Individual insurers pause new policies within roughly 25 to 50 kilometres of an active, uncontained fire, and the exact distance varies by company (Canadian Underwriter, July 2026). Once BC Wildfire Service downgrades a fire to held or contained, most insurers reopen new policies in that area within days.
How close can a wildfire be before insurers stop offering new coverage?
Most BC insurers stop binding new policies inside 25 to 50 kilometres of an active, uncontained wildfire, though a few will underwrite case by case between 25 and 50 kilometres, and some have pushed their pause radius out to 55 to 100 kilometres in high-severity seasons. There is no single rule across the industry. A buyer's broker who checks with multiple insurers, not one, finds the actual live options for that address.
What is the BCFSA Wildfire Clause?
The BC Financial Services Authority recommends buyers add a subject-to-insurance condition, sometimes called a wildfire clause, to any offer closing between May and October. It gives the buyer a defined window to confirm an actual insurance quote before removing subjects, rather than assuming coverage will be available at completion. BCFSA also flags an "incumbent stay on risk" option, where a seller's existing insurer temporarily reissues the policy in the buyer's name through closing.
Does FireSmart certification lower home insurance premiums in BC?
It can. FireSmart BC's Wildfire Mitigation Program offers a free home assessment, and two insurers, BCAA and Co-operators, currently offer savings to homeowners who complete the assessment and reach FireSmart certification (FireSmart BC). The discount is insurer-specific and not universal, but the assessment itself is free and worth doing before a wildfire-adjacent purchase, not after.
What happens if a wildfire starts after I've already made an offer on a home?
Your subject-to-insurance condition becomes the thing that saves or costs you the deposit. If a fire ignites near the property after you have an accepted offer but before subject removal, get your insurance broker checking availability immediately, and ask your REALTOR® about an incumbent stay on risk with the seller's current insurer. Buyers without a financing or insurance subject in place carry the real risk in that scenario, not the buyers who built one in.
All for now,
Michael
Michael A. Jones - PREC* is a REALTOR® with Royal LePage Kelowna, licensed in British Columbia. He writes about Central Okanagan housing — Kelowna, West Kelowna, Lake Country, and Vernon — under the byline The Real Estate Novelist. Member of the Association of Interior REALTORS® and the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA). Reach him at 250-258-4663 or yourkelownahomes.com.
General market information for the Central Okanagan. Not personalized financial, legal, or tax advice, and not insurance advice. Insurance availability and pricing are set by individual insurers and change during active wildfire events. Confirm current terms with a licensed insurance broker and a licensed REALTOR® or appropriate professional before writing or accepting an offer. Fire size, containment, and evacuation status change by the day; the figures in this post reflect BC Wildfire Service reporting as of August 17, 2026, and may be outdated by the time you read this. Check bcwildfire.ca or emergencyinfobc.gov.bc.ca for current conditions before making any decision.