As Canada posts its costliest year on record for severe weather losses, steel building suppliers say demand for non-combustible construction has accelerated, with property owners and developers citing fire performance as a primary factor in material selection.
Canada recorded more than $8.5 billion CAD in insured losses from severe weather events in 2024 , the costliest year in Canadian history, according to Catastrophe Indices and Quantification Inc. (CatIQ). The Jasper wildfire alone destroyed an estimated 358 structures and caused $1.23 billion CAD in insured damages. Against that backdrop, the non-combustible properties of structural steel are drawing renewed attention from contractors and property owners who can no longer afford to ignore material performance in fire.
“The wildfire data from the last two seasons is changing conversations on the ground,” said Herbert Broderick, a CEO of Metal Pro Buildings. “Buyers who used to focus almost entirely on cost per square foot are now asking specific questions about fire ratings, non-combustible classifications, and what their insurance carrier will recognize.”
The numbers tell a grim story. The Insurance Bureau of Canada reported that insured losses from wildfires averaged roughly $70 million CAD annually between 2005 and 2014. In the decade that followed, that figure climbed to about $750 million per year, an increase of more than 1,000%. Canada’s 2023 wildfire season consumed 16.5 million hectares, according to Natural Resources Canada, more than double the previous record and nearly seven times the historical average. With climate conditions worsening, the Canadian construction industry is reassessing how buildings are designed and what they are built from.
Steel performs fundamentally differently from wood when exposed to fire. Unlike timber, steel is a non-combustible material; it does not ignite, does not provide a fuel source, and does not accelerate the spread of flames through a structure. The Canadian Sheet Steel Building Institute (CSSBI) notes that steel has a melting point of about 1,500°C, while a fully developed building fire in a typical office, residential, or commercial occupancy typically reaches a peak range of 800°C to 900°C. That gap matters: a steel frame maintains structural integrity far longer than a wood frame under the same fire conditions, giving occupants and first responders additional time to act.
“Steel is a non-combustible material and consequently does not burn, provide an ignition source, or add fuel load that would enable a fire to spread or grow into a catastrophic event,” the CSSBI states in its fire safety guidance. The institute adds that steel’s non-combustibility and assembly fire ratings do not degrade over the lifecycle of a building , a key distinction for long-term property owners.
Steel does lose some structural strength as temperatures rise, but that behaviour is predictable and engineerable. Modern fireproofing systems address this directly. The Canadian Institute of Steel Construction (CISC) publishes fire-rated design series , including guidance on thin-film intumescent coatings that allow engineers to specify protection systems meeting required fire-resistance ratings under Canadian standards. Intumescent coatings, applied to structural steel at a thickness of one to three millimetres, expand dramatically when exposed to heat forming an insulating char layer 50 to 100 millimetres thick or more slowing heat transfer and protecting the underlying steel member.
Options available to Canadian builders include spray-applied fire-resistive materials (SFRM), mineral fibreboard systems, and intumescent paint products certified to the Canadian standard CAN/ULC-S101. The Standards Council of Canada (SCC) oversees the accreditation of fire safety products to ensure compliance with Canadian testing requirements.
The National Building Code of Canada (NBC), published by the National Research Council and developed through the Canadian Commission on Building and Fire Codes (CCBFC), establishes the framework for fire-resistance ratings in new construction across the country. The NBC classifies buildings by occupancy and specifies minimum fire-resistance ratings (FRR) for structural assemblies. Ratings are expressed in hours; a two-hour FRR means a wall or floor assembly must resist fire exposure for two full hours under standardized test conditions defined by CAN/ULC-S101. Each province adopts or amends the national code through its own regulatory framework: Ontario through the Ontario Building Code, British Columbia through the BC Building Code, and Alberta through the Alberta Building Code, among others.
The fire performance advantage of steel carries direct cost implications for Canadian property owners. Non-combustible construction classifications can reduce insurance premiums. Research from the Steel Framing Industry Association found that recognizing steel framing as non-combustible can cut builders’ risk insurance premiums by as much as 25% to 75% on commercial projects. In agricultural settings where large, open-span buildings house expensive equipment, grain, and livestock ; the financial exposure from a single structural fire can be catastrophic.
Cold-formed steel (CFS) framing, used widely in residential and light commercial construction, shares these non-combustible properties. A study from Queensland University of Technology found that CFS framed walls act as key components of the building envelope and play a critical role in resisting bushfire-style fire attacks, findings with direct relevance to Canada’s increasingly fire-prone regions.
“For agricultural and commercial operators in wildfire-interface zones in B.C. and Alberta, a steel building isn’t just a material preference anymore; it can be the difference between a total loss and a recoverable situation,” Broderick said. “The insurance math alone is making the conversation easier.”
As provinces such as British Columbia and Alberta update building codes and land-use planning rules to account for wildfire interface zones, material selection will carry more regulatory weight. The Insurance Bureau of Canada has called on federal and provincial governments to invest in risk-reduction infrastructure and to accelerate adoption of fire-smart building practices. For developers, farmers, and commercial operators deciding on new structures, the question is no longer whether fire performance matters, it is how much structural fire resistance is built in from day one.
