What to Do After a Home Fire in Canada: A 24-Hour Insurance Action Plan

A house fire is one of the most traumatic things that can happen to a Canadian family. Even a small kitchen fire can leave your home uninhabitable for weeks, your belongings drenched in soot, and your insurance claim spread over months of paperwork.

The good news: the first 24 hours, handled well, can shave months off your recovery and tens of thousands of dollars off your out-of-pocket costs. This guide is a calm, practical action plan — built around what Canadian insurers and fire marshals actually need from you.

• The first 60 minutes: safety, accountability, and the fire chief's report
• The first 24 hours: calling your insurer, getting an ALE advance, and securing the property
• What home insurance pays for after a fire
• How Additional Living Expenses (ALE) actually work
• How to document fire damage so your claim is not reduced
• What happens if investigators suspect arson
• Common mistakes that get fire claims denied
• When to hire a public adjuster instead of trusting the insurer's adjuster

If you are reading this right now, in the middle of an emergency: skip ahead to "The First 60 Minutes." Everything else can wait.

Before you think about a single dollar of insurance — get everyone out. Insurance can replace a house. It cannot replace a person.

1. Get out and stay out. Use your pre-planned exit routes. Stay low under the smoke. Close doors behind you to slow the fire. Do not stop for valuables or documents — nothing in the house is worth your life.
2. Call 911 from outside. Give the address, your name, and whether anyone is unaccounted for. Stay on the line.
3. Do a headcount at your meeting point. Every household should have a designated meeting place. Account for every person and pet. If someone is missing, tell the fire chief — never re-enter to search yourself.
4. Do not re-enter the home for any reason. Not for your wallet, not for the cat. Fires reignite, ceilings collapse, and superheated air can sear your lungs in seconds.
5. Get the fire chief's name and the incident number. Once the fire is out, ask the senior firefighter for their name and badge number, the incident report number, and which agency is investigating the cause (local department, provincial Fire Marshal, or police). You will need this within 24 hours.
6. Accept help. The Canadian Red Cross is dispatched to most residential fires and provides emergency lodging (usually 72 hours), food vouchers, and clothing. Accepting it does not affect your insurance claim.

Once everyone is safe, fed, and somewhere warm — and only then — it is time to deal with insurance.

This is the window where the right moves protect your fire claim for the next 12 months. Do these in order:

1. Call your insurer's 24/7 claims line right away. Do not wait for morning, do not wait for "things to calm down." Most Canadian home insurance policies require prompt notice of loss. The number is on the back of your policy documents, on your insurer's website, or on your broker's after-hours line. If your phone burned, look up your insurer on a friend's phone.
2. Get your claim number in writing. Ask the agent for the claim number, the adjuster's name (if assigned), and a written confirmation by email or text. This is your reference for everything that follows — keep it in a dedicated folder (paper or digital).
3. Request an emergency ALE advance. Tell the claims agent: "My home is uninhabitable. I need an immediate Additional Living Expenses advance so we can check into a hotel tonight." Most Canadian insurers can wire or e-transfer $1,000 to $5,000 within hours. This is part of your existing coverage — you are not asking for a favour.
4. Secure the property (board-up). Most policies require you to take "reasonable steps" to prevent further damage. A burned-out home with a hole in the roof and broken windows is an open invitation for rain, animals, and looters — and the insurer can deny secondary damage if you did not act. Ask your insurer to dispatch their preferred emergency response (board-up) contractor, or use one they pre-approve. Save every receipt.
5. Do not discard anything. Not the burned mattress, not the soot-covered toaster, not the melted TV. Every damaged item is evidence of value for your contents claim. Throwing things out before the adjuster has documented them is the single most common reason fire claim payouts come in low.
6. Do not begin permanent repairs. Emergency tarps and board-ups, yes. New drywall, new flooring, new cabinetry, no. The insurance adjuster must inspect the damage in its original state. Starting repairs before approval can void large portions of your claim.
7. Notify your mortgage lender. Your lender is listed as a loss payee on your home insurance policy and has a legal interest in the property. Most lenders have a dedicated insurance claims department — call within 24–48 hours so insurance cheques are not held up later.
8. Start a fire claim journal. A simple notebook or a single document. Date and time of every phone call, every visit, every email. Names of every adjuster, contractor, and inspector. This becomes your evidence trail if anything is disputed later.

Standard Canadian home insurance policies (Comprehensive Form / All-Risk) cover fire as a named peril — meaning fire damage is one of the most clearly covered events in the entire policy. Here is what is typically paid out after a covered fire:

One important note: most Canadian policies pay Actual Cash Value (depreciated) for contents unless you have a Replacement Cost endorsement. Replacement Cost is worth the small extra premium — a 10-year-old laptop is worth $200 depreciated but $1,500 to replace.

For full coverage definitions, see the Insurance Bureau of Canada.

Additional Living Expenses coverage — sometimes called Coverage D or Loss of Use — keeps your family housed and fed while your home is repaired. It is one of the most underused parts of a Canadian home insurance policy.

ALE pays the difference between your normal cost of living and what you spend while displaced. Typical covered expenses:

• Accommodation: Hotel, extended-stay suite, short-term furnished rental — comparable to your normal standard of living, not luxury upgrades.
• Meals: Restaurant and takeout costs above your normal grocery baseline. Keep every receipt.
• Pet boarding: Kennel fees if your temporary lodging does not allow pets.
• Laundry and dry cleaning while you have no washing machine.
• Mileage: Extra kilometres to commute or retrieve items. Keep a CRA-style log.
• Furniture rental, storage fees, and moving costs both ways.

How much, and for how long? Most Canadian policies cap ALE at 20–30% of your dwelling limit, over 12–24 months. On a $600,000 dwelling limit, that's roughly $120,000–$180,000 — usually enough for 1–2 years of comparable housing.

Two ALE traps to avoid:

1. Do not upgrade your lifestyle on the insurer's dime. If you lived in an 1,800 sq ft suburban home, do not move into a $9,000/month downtown penthouse. The insurer reimburses only the "comparable" portion.
2. Do not delay finding longer-term housing. After 1–2 weeks, hotels become very expensive. A short-term furnished rental saves your ALE budget for the back half of the rebuild.

Your claim payout is only as strong as your documentation. Adjusters cannot pay for what you cannot prove existed. The bad news: most of your "proof" was inside the house that just burned. The good news: there is a clear process Canadian adjusters expect.

1. Photograph everything BEFORE any cleanup. Once you are allowed back, photograph every room from at least four angles. Include floors, ceilings, and inside cupboards, drawers, and closets. The destruction itself is the evidence.
2. Take a video walkthrough. A 5–10 minute video narrating what you see ("This was the master bedroom, a king-size mattress, a 65-inch TV") is more compelling than photos. Email it to yourself for a date-stamped copy.
3. Build a contents inventory. Go room by room. List every item, its approximate age, brand, and estimated replacement cost. Insurers expect a typical 3-bedroom home to contain 5,000+ individual items.
4. Pull receipts from email and credit cards. Search your inbox for "order confirmation" going back five years. Pull credit card and bank statements. These prove value for big-ticket items.
5. Reconstruct from cloud photos. Family photos often show items in the background — the dining set in a birthday photo, the bicycle in a Christmas-morning photo. Excellent evidence.
6. Save every receipt from the moment of the fire forward. Hotel folios, restaurant bills, replacement clothing, prescriptions, the suitcase you had to buy. Everything.

If you have a pre-fire home inventory video on your phone (taken in calmer times), now is the moment it pays you back ten times over. If you don't, make one today for your next home — never again rely on memory.

Every Canadian residential fire has an "origin and cause" investigation. For most fires — a candle, a stove, an overloaded power bar, faulty wiring — the cause is determined within hours and the claim moves forward normally.

But if investigators suspect arson, an illegal activity (such as a cannabis grow-op), or an exclusion under your policy, things slow down considerably:

• The provincial fire marshal gets involved. In Ontario, that's the Office of the Fire Marshal. In BC, the Office of the Fire Commissioner. Each province has an equivalent.
• Police may run a parallel investigation if there is evidence of accelerants, multiple points of origin, or a financial motive.
• Your insurer will conduct its own investigation. Expect a Special Investigations Unit (SIU) adjuster, not your regular adjuster.
• You may be asked for an Examination Under Oath (EUO). A formal recorded interview under oath. Cooperate, but bring a lawyer — what you say is admissible.
• Claim payments pause until the investigation concludes — often 3–9 months. Your ALE may continue if you are cooperating fully.

Your rights matter here. You are not required to be interviewed without a lawyer, sign documents you do not understand, or accept an early "convenience" settlement. If the investigation is dragging and you feel pushed, hire a public adjuster or an insurance lawyer who specializes in fire claims. Innocent homeowners win these investigations every day — tell the truth, document everything, and let your representation do the talking.

Most fire claims in Canada are paid in full. But the ones that come in low — sometimes by tens of thousands of dollars — almost always involve the same handful of mistakes. Avoid these:

1. Discarding damaged contents before the adjuster sees them. The single biggest mistake. Soot-covered, water-soaked, half-melted items are still evidence of value. Put them in a labelled corner of the garage, not the curb.
2. Accepting the first offer. The first cheque is rarely the final cheque. Cash advances are fine — but do not sign anything labelled "final release" or "full and final settlement" without an independent review.
3. Signing a Proof of Loss too early. A Proof of Loss is a sworn statement of the value of your loss. Once signed, it is hard to amend. Take the full statutory period (usually 60–90 days) to compile it properly.
4. Not reading the Proof of Loss carefully. Homeowners often sign Proofs of Loss that drastically undercount contents because they are "in a daze" after the fire. Have a lawyer or public adjuster review it.
5. Missing the limitation period. Most Canadian provinces require lawsuits against an insurer to be filed within 1–2 years of the date of loss (or denial). Miss that window and your right to sue is gone forever. Calendar this date the day you file.
6. Being underinsured to begin with. If your dwelling limit is $400,000 but your home costs $700,000 to rebuild at 2026 costs, you fund the difference. Canadian construction costs have risen 30%+ in five years — review your replacement cost annually.

There are two kinds of adjusters in any Canadian fire claim:

• The insurance company's adjuster — works for the insurer, paid by the insurer. Most are professional and fair, but their job is to settle for the lowest defensible amount.
• The public adjuster — works for YOU, paid by YOU (usually 5–15% of the final settlement). They prepare the inventory, negotiate the scope, and argue every line item.

You probably don't need a public adjuster if: the loss is small (under $25,000), the cause is clearly accidental, your insurer's adjuster is responsive and paying advances promptly, and you have time and good documentation.

You probably should hire a public adjuster if: the loss is large ($100,000+) or a total loss, cause is disputed, you're being pressured to sign documents quickly, the adjuster has gone quiet or low-balled the estimate, or you are too exhausted to project-manage a 12-month claim.

Public adjusters in Canada are licensed provincially. Verify the license with your provincial regulator before hiring (FSRA in Ontario, BCFSA in BC, AMF in Quebec). Get the fee agreement in writing.

A home fire in Canada is awful — but it is survivable, financially and emotionally, if you follow the right steps in the right order. Safety first. Insurer notice within hours. ALE advance the same day. Documentation before cleanup. No early signatures. No discarded contents. No final releases without a second opinion.

The single most important decision happens before any fire ever starts: choosing a home insurance provider that handles claims well. The cheapest premium is rarely the best policy. Look at claim payment speed, ALE generosity, replacement cost coverage, and the insurer's reputation in independent reviews — not just the monthly price tag.

If your current insurer left you uneasy after a small claim, or if you've never compared what else is out there, this is the moment. Recovering from a fire is hard enough — you should not have to fight your own insurer on top of it.