Shelter & Warmth
Roof, heat, dry.
Two weeks of indoor air at AQI 200+ is its own emergency. The clean room, the filter capacity, and the seal both matter.
The shelter & warmth domain →Wildfire 2-week plan
The 2-week wildfire plan — defensible space, indoor air quality, and the displaced-household logistics that come with two weeks in someone else's house.
Two weeks of wildfire readiness is two-track preparation. Track one is the household that stays — the clean room, the air filter, the water for embers, the defensible space that holds. Track two is the household that left — two weeks of clothes, meds, work-from-anywhere setup, and a child or pet routine that survives in a hotel or a relative's spare bedroom. Most wildfire planning ignores track two until it is the only track left. This list does both.
The load-bearing domains
What this combination actually depends on
Every event–duration combination weights the nine domains differently. Here are the two or three that decide the outcome for this one.
Health & First Aid
Care when help is far.
Smoke exposure is cumulative. Two weeks of poor air affects healthy adults, not just sensitive groups. Mask supply and inhaler stocks have to last.
The health & first aid domain →Documents & Finance
Paper trails matter.
If the fire takes the house, the documents bag is the difference between rebuilding in 18 months and rebuilding in five years.
The documents & finance domain →The 2 weeks list
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Common questions
Questions that come up
How long does wildfire smoke usually stay bad in an affected area?
Local heavy smoke from an active fire is usually 3–10 days. Regional smoke from a distant large fire — the kind that drifts hundreds of miles — can last 2–4 weeks during an active fire season. Two weeks of indoor air management is the right scope for a household within 200 miles of a major fire.
What's the difference between defensible space Zone 1 and Zone 2?
Zone 1 is the first 30 feet around the structure: lean, clean, green. No firewood against siding, no propane tanks near walls, no dry vegetation. Zone 2 is the next 70 feet (30–100 ft): reduced fuel, spaced trees, no ladder fuels (low branches that let fire climb into canopy). Most ember ignitions happen in Zone 1; most direct flame contact comes from Zone 2.
Can I stay in my house during a wildfire if I have defensible space?
Sometimes — but only if you are not in an evacuation order, you have prepared the house (defensible space, external sprinklers tested, embers cannot reach attic vents), you are physically capable of fighting embers on the property for hours, and you have a hardened safe room with backup air. The default for households without that combination is to leave on the order.
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Same event, different scope
Other wildfire evacuation durations
Same scope, different event
The 2-week version for other events
Run the numbers
How much water and food, exactly, for this duration
The list above tells you what to stock. The calculators below tell you how much — sized to your household and this duration.
Go deeper