Free Tool — Wildfire Status Kit
Tell customers your status — everywhere, in 60 seconds.
Fire season in BC means smoke, alerts, and customers wondering if you're open. The last thing you have time for is writing four versions of the same update. Pick your status and get matching copy for your Google profile, website banner, social, and voicemail — plus the Google settings people forget to change.
Why this matters
In a wildfire summer, BC Interior businesses lose money two ways: the disruption itself, and being assumedclosed when they're not. Tourists cancel, locals stay home, and a Google listing with no update during a smoke event reads as abandoned. The businesses that communicate clearly keep their customers — and earn a kind of loyalty that outlasts the season. The wildfire-season checklist for BC businesses covers the full before-during-after playbook this kit is the fast version of.
The most common failure isn't bad wording — it's a Google Business Profile nobody can log in to when it matters. Run the free 13-point GBP audit before the smoke rolls in, and if keeping it all current is the thing that always slips, that's a service I offer.
Questions
Should I mark my business "temporarily closed" on Google during a wildfire?
If you genuinely can’t serve customers, yes — use "Temporarily closed" (Edit profile → Hours), never "Permanently closed", which can wreck your rankings for weeks after you reopen. If you’re open but with reduced hours, use special hours instead, and post an update so searchers see the why. And the day you reopen, flip it back yourself — Google keeps showing you as closed until you do.
We’re open but the news makes it look like the whole region is on fire — what do we say?
Exactly that, calmly: "we’re open as usual; the smoke looks worse on the news than on the ground." During the 2023 and 2024 seasons, Interior businesses lost real revenue not to fire but to cancelled trips and customers assuming closure. An "we’re open" post on Google and social is free insurance against being assumed closed.
Why do the updates need to match across Google, website, social, and voicemail?
Because customers check whichever channel they happen to think of — and during an event, a Google listing that says open while voicemail says closed reads as "they’ve abandoned ship." One consistent message everywhere is what "still in business" looks like from the outside. That’s why this kit generates all four from one set of inputs.
Is this only for wildfires?
The wording is written for BC fire season because that’s the recurring one here, but the statuses (open with changes, temporarily closed, reopened) work for floods, extended power outages, highway closures, or any disruption where customers need to know your status fast.
What should I do before fire season, not during it?
Three things: confirm you can actually log in to your Google Business Profile (recovering access takes weeks, not minutes), make sure your website is somewhere you can edit quickly, and save this kit. There’s a full pre-season checklist in the wildfire-season guide linked below.