Emberline is a specialist wildfire and building enclosure consultancy focused on how buildings are exposed to, and how enclosures resist, wildfire; and on how technical knowledge becomes practical design, tools, policy, and evidence.
Wildfire loss is fundamentally a load-resistance problem: fire and heat create exterior loads, and buildings survive when the enclosure and its interfaces provide sufficient resistance.
Emberline applies this load-resistance lens across scales, from parcel-level exposure and assembly vulnerability to municipal regulation and national guidance. The work connects wildfire science, building science, field construction, and implementation so that recommendations remain technically defensible and practical to use.
Engagements are direct and senior-led. The emphasis is on clear problem definition, proportionate analysis, transparent assumptions, and useful conclusions for designers, governments, researchers, insurers, counsel, and building owners.
Specialized services for complex wildfire and building-performance questions, supported by deep enclosure expertise and hands-on construction experience.
Property assessment; receiver-specific assessment of wildfire and adjacent-structure exposure; load-path and vulnerability analysis; wildfire-resistant enclosure design; mitigation strategy; technical peer review; and performance-based support for buildings and sites.
Applied research, analytical and screening tools, technical guidance, standards, regulatory pathways, policy frameworks, and implementation strategies that translate wildfire knowledge into robust and defensible decisions.
Wildfire damage investigation, failure-path analysis, technical opinion, document and standard-of-care review, insurance support, and litigation support. Broader enclosure failures and disputed conditions are also supported.
Assembly development, detailing, hygrothermal and durability review, peer review, retrofit strategy, and construction-phase support for efficient, climate-responsive, high-performance buildings, particularly in northern and remote environments.
Developed by Emberline, WUI-HT is a technical analysis tool for evaluating radiant heat exposure to buildings from vegetation and adjacent structures.
It supports scenario-based analysis of heterogeneous exterior fire loads, helping users examine how fuel geometry, separation, orientation, shielding, wind, and slope influence the heat received by individual building surfaces.
Explore WUI-HT
M.B.Sc., M.A. (NRES), P.L.Eng. (BC/YT), RSE, CWMS (NFPA)
Wildfire Resilience | Research & Policy | Building Enclosures
Robin Urquhart is a wildfire and building enclosure specialist whose work focuses on the relationship between exterior fire exposure and building resistance. He develops assessment methods, analytical tools, technical guidance, and policy pathways for wildfire-resilient buildings and communities, and provides forensic investigation and independent expert advisory services for complex wildfire and enclosure matters.
Robin’s wildfire work includes the development of WUI-HT, wildfire-resilient rebuilding and home guidance, municipal implementation frameworks, and national standards initiatives in Canada. His current research advances a load-resistance methodology for understanding structure performance in the wildland-urban interface.
His background combines applied building science, field construction, and natural-resource decision-making. Robin holds the Professional Licensee Engineering (P.L.Eng.) designation in British Columbia and Yukon and is also a Red Seal Carpenter and an NFPA Certified Wildfire Mitigation Specialist. This cross-disciplinary experience supports advice that is technically rigorous, constructible, and responsive to real-world regulatory and operational constraints.
Emberline works with governments, design teams, researchers, insurers, counsel, owners, and other organizations across Canada.
robin@emberlineenclosure.com