How to build a wildfire preparedness and response plan for enterprises

Wildfire preparedness helps enterprises anticipate, mitigate, respond, recover, and adapt when fire risk threatens people, assets, operations, or infrastructure. A coordinated plan gives teams clear actions before, during, and after a wildfire – and supports continuity when conditions change quickly.

Enterprises should build a wildfire preparedness and response plan by connecting risk intelligence, business continuity, communications, and recovery workflows. An effective plan should:

1. Identify exposed locations, people, assets, operations, and supply chains.
2. Include wildfire risk in business continuity planning and operational resilience programs.
3. Monitor wildfires, severe weather, evacuation zones, road closures, and utility disruptions in real time.
4. Define roles, escalation paths, evacuation procedures, and recovery steps.
5. Communicate quickly with affected employees, leaders, partners, and stakeholders.
6. Confirm employee safety and track response actions through a centralized system.
7. Review lessons learned after each event and adapt the plan before the next fire season.

The enterprise wildfire risk landscape

Over the past few years, the world has seen an increase in natural disasters, large-scale events, and social unrest. As the threat landscape evolves, security and resilience planning must also account for climate-related risk.

Climate change is one of the biggest threats to businesses today, with more than 80% of executives concerned by its potential impact. One climate threat stands out for enterprises with distributed workforces, physical sites, field operations, and supply chains: wildfires.

Global wildfire activity is expected to surge in the coming years. Devastated areas are also likely to be hit again, which makes proactive readiness essential for organizational resilience.

Recent wildfire seasons show the scale of potential impact. In Australia, previous bushfires ravaged more than 46 million acres of land and 10,000 structures. In the United States, California’s fire seasons continue to raise concern after more than 10.3 million acres burned across an area larger than the state of Rhode Island. In South America, concerns continue around wildfire damage in the Amazon and other critical ecosystems.

With the rate of wildfires increasing and the scope of damage expanding, businesses need a measurable plan to protect people, assets, operations, and infrastructure.

Common wildfire preparedness challenges for businesses

Wildfires pose risk to individuals, communities, and enterprises. They can damage facilities, disrupt transportation, interrupt power, affect air quality, and force evacuations with limited warning.

Many natural disasters have regional patterns or limited durations. Wildfires can spread quickly, last for extended periods, and create cascading impacts across nearby communities, suppliers, and infrastructure. That makes wildfire preparedness an essential part of any resilient enterprise response plan.

Enterprises often face several common challenges:

• Distributed exposure: Employees, facilities, field teams, suppliers, and customers may face different risk levels at the same time.
• Fast-changing conditions: Fire perimeters, wind patterns, evacuation zones, road closures, and utility outages can change quickly.
• Communication gaps: Organizations may need to reach employees across multiple devices, locations, shifts, and languages.
• Operational disruption: Even when a facility avoids direct fire damage, surrounding infrastructure may be unsafe or unavailable.
• Recovery uncertainty: Teams need clear processes for reopening sites, supporting employees, and restoring continuity.

How wildfire risk affects business continuity and insurance planning

With several devastating wildfire seasons on record in recent years, more U.S. companies have flagged wildfires as a potential risk factor in annual reports. Multiple companies listed in the S&P 500 have added wildfires as a growing concern to their 10-K filings as wildfire instances rise.

The growing cost and frequency of wildfires have many businesses seeking long-term solutions for this climate risk. For example, Quanta Services, a Texas-based power infrastructure company, warned investors that current insurance coverage may not sufficiently account for wildfire risk.

Insurers are also evaluating how to manage wildfire exposure. This shift could make wildfire resilience and preparedness a condition of coverage to help prevent another $13 billion in costs to the insurance industry.

While insurance requirements will continue to evolve, one of the most practical steps businesses can take before the next wildfire season is to create a wildfire emergency response plan.

Everbridge solution overview for wildfire preparedness and risk management

Everbridge helps enterprises connect wildfire risk monitoring, critical communications, response workflows, and business continuity in one coordinated approach. Everbridge 360 and the High Velocity Critical Event Management platform help organizations anticipate threats, mitigate disruption, respond faster, and recover with greater control.

Powered by Purpose-built AI, Everbridge solutions help organizations turn real-time threat intelligence into coordinated action. Teams can identify affected people, assets, and operations, send targeted notifications, automate escalation paths, and track response status through the lifecycle of critical events.

Key Everbridge capabilities for wildfire preparedness include:

• Risk monitoring: Track wildfire activity, severe weather, and related threats that may affect people, facilities, or operations.
• Critical communications: Send targeted messages across multiple channels to employees, leaders, partners, and stakeholders.
• Business continuity planning: Connect response procedures to continuity workflows, site plans, and recovery actions.
• Employee safety checks: Confirm who is safe, who needs support, and who may be in an affected area.
• Operational visibility: Give response teams a shared view of threats, impacted locations, and response progress.
• After-action improvement: Use event history and response data to strengthen readiness over time.

How enterprises should create a wildfire response plan with Everbridge solutions

A comprehensive wildfire emergency response plan should combine planning, monitoring, communication, response, and recovery. The following framework helps enterprises build a practical plan that supports resilience before, during, and after a wildfire.

1. Include wildfires in the business continuity plan

Many business processes are time-sensitive, and any interruption can pose significant risk. Business continuity plans help minimize disruption by identifying risk factors, dependencies, response actions, and recovery priorities.

Because wildfires can create long-term disruption, businesses should include wildfire risk in continuity planning. Everbridge supports a mobile business continuity planning approach that helps teams access and activate plans when they need them most.

A wildfire continuity plan should define:

• Critical business processes and recovery priorities.
• Site-specific response and evacuation procedures.
• Remote work and alternate worksite options.
• Supplier, logistics, and infrastructure dependencies.
• Employee support and accountability procedures.
• Recovery steps for reopening and resuming operations.

2. Complete a wildfire risk audit

After adding wildfire risk to the business continuity plan, organizations should evaluate the specific exposure they face. A wildfire risk audit should consider office locations, remote employees, field workers, warehouses, supply chains, and critical infrastructure.

Organizations do not need to be in a high-risk or extreme-risk area to experience wildfire disruption. Smoke, road closures, power outages, supplier delays, and evacuations can affect operations beyond the fire perimeter.

Common wildfire risk categories include:

• Property: Buildings, equipment, and operating sites may face direct damage or disruption from surrounding area damage.
• Assets: Industries such as real estate, agriculture, and utilities may have assets exposed to wildfire damage or destruction.
• People: Employees may be displaced, evacuated, unable to travel safely, or affected by air quality and utility disruption.
• Operations: Production, service delivery, logistics, and customer support may be interrupted by infrastructure impacts.
• Supply chains: Vendors, transportation routes, and distribution centers may be affected even when enterprise facilities remain safe.

Organizations are encouraged to invest in a risk monitoring solution, such as Everbridge Risk Center, to target, track, and monitor wildfires effectively.

3. Monitor wildfire conditions and exposed locations

Wildfire plans need current information. Enterprises should monitor wildfire activity, evacuation notices, severe weather, transportation disruption, power outages, and other related threats that may affect people, assets, operations, or infrastructure.

Real-time threat intelligence helps teams understand which locations and employees may be impacted. It also supports faster decisions about closures, evacuations, shift changes, travel restrictions, and recovery actions.

A monitoring process should include:

• Defined wildfire risk thresholds.
• Location data for facilities, employees, field teams, and key suppliers.
• Alerts for fire perimeters, evacuation zones, road closures, and utility outages.
• A centralized view of impacted people, assets, and operations.
• Escalation rules for response teams and business leaders.

4. Establish a reliable way to communicate with the workforce

Wildfires can start and spread quickly, so businesses need a fast, reliable way to connect with employees during critical events. Communication plans should include multiple channels, predefined message templates, role-based escalation paths, and employee safety confirmation.

Those on the front lines of critical events like the West Coast wildfires, including Jamie Crozat and her family, can attest to the value of timely information. Jamie and her family were victims of wildfire. Thanks to the speed and reliability of Nixle, a mass communication tool developed by Everbridge, Jamie and her family were able to flee their home within 90 minutes of its destruction.

Modern mass notification tools help organizations notify and protect employees by communicating efficiently and reliably. For many wildfire survivors, communication is one of the most important ways to mitigate risk and support safety.

5. Define evacuation, shelter, and accountability workflows

Wildfire response plans should clearly explain what employees should do when an evacuation order, warning, or air quality event affects their location. Plans should also define who approves facility closures, who sends notifications, and who tracks employee safety.

Effective workflows should include:

• Evacuation triggers and decision authority.
• Shelter-in-place guidance when evacuation is not safe.
• Employee check-in and accountability steps.
• Transportation and accessibility considerations.
• Procedures for visitors, contractors, and field teams.
• Reentry criteria for offices, warehouses, and operating sites.

6. Coordinate response across teams and stakeholders

Wildfire response often involves security, facilities, human resources, operations, communications, legal, and executive leadership. A coordinated structure helps each team understand its role and reduces delays when conditions change.

Enterprises should define:

• Response team roles and alternates.
• Escalation paths for executive decisions.
• Communication templates for employees, customers, partners, and suppliers.
• Hand-offs between emergency response, business continuity, and recovery teams.
• Documentation requirements for compliance, insurance, and after-action review.

7. Test, train, and adapt the plan

A wildfire plan is most effective when employees know how to use it. Enterprises should test contact data, run tabletop exercises, review evacuation procedures, and update continuity plans before wildfire season.

After each wildfire or near miss, teams should review what worked and what needs improvement. This review helps the organization adapt plans, update workflows, improve messaging, and strengthen readiness for future critical events.

Benefits of a proactive wildfire preparedness plan

A proactive wildfire preparedness plan helps enterprises reduce uncertainty and act with greater speed and control. It also supports the broader Best in Resilience journey by connecting risk awareness to coordinated action.

Enterprise benefits include:

• Faster identification of exposed people, assets, operations, and infrastructure.
• More targeted employee notifications and safety checks.
• Clearer decision-making for closures, evacuations, and operational changes.
• Better continuity planning across sites, suppliers, and business functions.
• Improved coordination between response teams and leadership.
• Stronger documentation for recovery, compliance, and insurance processes.
• A scalable approach that can adapt to future natural disasters and large-scale events.

Wildfire preparedness use cases by industry

Wildfire preparedness is not limited to organizations with facilities in high-risk areas. Many industries can experience direct or indirect disruption from wildfire activity.

Common use cases include:

• Real estate: Protect properties, tenants, site teams, and maintenance operations.
• Agriculture: Monitor exposed land, equipment, workers, livestock, and logistics.
• Utilities and power infrastructure: Coordinate field crews, asset protection, and service continuity.
• Healthcare: Support patient care, staff safety, facility access, and supply continuity.
• Retail and hospitality: Manage store closures, employee notifications, and customer communication.
• Manufacturing: Protect facilities, production schedules, suppliers, and distribution routes.
• Education: Communicate with students, faculty, staff, families, and campus operations teams.
• Public sector: Support community alerting, evacuation communication, and interagency coordination.

Resources for wildfire readiness

Enterprises can strengthen wildfire readiness by using credible risk data, continuity planning tools, and communication resources. The following resources can help teams evaluate exposure and improve response planning:

Gartner Market Guide for Emergency and Mass Notification Systems

Facts and statistics: wildfires

Everbridge Risk Center

Everbridge business continuity planning

Best in Resilience maturity self-assessment

Wildfire preparedness is an essential part of enterprise planning

Whether businesses operate in high-risk areas or are preparing for a changing threat landscape, wildfire preparedness is an essential step in a resilient enterprise response plan. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to risk management, but every organization can improve readiness with proactive planning, real-time visibility, and coordinated communication.

Everbridge helps organizations protect people, assets, operations, and infrastructure before, during, and after critical events. To learn more about developing an effective wildfire response plan for your business, schedule a demo.

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