Microproduct Data GuideBeginner

CWFIF Active Wildland Fires

Canadian active-wildfire records from NRCan CWFIF for inspecting fire identifiers, status, size, and reported location.

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At a Glance

Difficulty
Beginner — comfortable for a first prototype
Size
Tiny · ≤0.01 GB
Formats
GeoJSON
Access
API
API Key
Not Required
Provider
Natural Resources Canada CWFIF
Updates
Near Real Time
Last Verified
Sep 28, 2026
Source Type
Government Source
Data Terms
Open Government Licence Canada 2.0 with Natural Resources Canada attribution.
  • Python Syntax Checked
  • Runnable Notebook

From Source to Product Signal

Test a Product Idea in Four Steps

NRCan's current CWFIF WFS offers active wildland-fire features under public:cwfif_national_activefires. Start with three GeoJSON features in EPSG:4326. A reported active-fire point is context; it does not by itself prove smoke origin, local exposure, or an evacuation area.

1

Check the Setup

  • Python 3.10 or newer
  • An internet connection
  • The requests Python package
2

Access the Data

  1. 1.Read the official WFS capabilities and Canadian licence.
  2. 2.Request three active-fire features with explicit geographic coordinates.
  3. 3.Inspect fire ID, prescribed status, and report time.
Open Official Source
3

Run the Python Example

Install the packages, then run the notebook cell.

python -m pip install requests

import requests

response = requests.get(
    "https://geoserver.cwfif.nrcan.gc.ca/geoserver/wfs",
    params={"service": "WFS", "version": "2.0.0", "request": "GetFeature",
            "typeNames": "public:cwfif_national_activefires",
            "outputFormat": "application/json", "srsName": "EPSG:4326", "count": 3},
    timeout=30,
)
response.raise_for_status()
for fire in response.json()["features"][:3]:
    row = fire["properties"]
    print(row.get("national_fire_id"), row.get("fire_size"),
          row.get("fire_was_prescribed"))
4

Test a Useful Signal

Inspect Canadian Active Fires

Review three official fire records before regional context mapping.

  1. 01Keep fire ID, report time, size, and prescribed-fire flag.
  2. 02Check freshness and geometry before mapping incidents.
  3. 03Explain why an active-fire record is not a smoke-source attribution.

Related Datasets

Dataset Details

Natural Resources Canada CWFIF is a government source. Last verified 2026-09-28. Temporal coverage: active wildland fires since 2010.

Geography

Canada

Formats

GeoJSON

Provider

Natural Resources Canada CWFIF

Data Terms

Open Government Licence Canada 2.0 with Natural Resources Canada attribution.

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