p><strong>The first step to building a home that is fire resistant is to ensure there is a significant fire break between your home and other combustible materials</strong>, be that trees or combustible out buildings like a wooden shed or garage. Fire resistant home design would then be a matter of selecting non-combustible building materials. Here is our page on fire resistant home design - </p> <p><strong><a href="/guides/3664/a-burning-need-to-know-protecting-your-home-from-wildfires/" target="_blank">How to protect your home from fire</a></strong></p> <p>Here is a home building example that may offer some value - our first concept demonstration home  was the Kenogami house in Quebec (a build that took place because the previous house burned in a forest fire so fire resistance was a priority). The home was not completely off grid but very close. It was called the most resilient house in North America by Alex Wilson, founder of the Resilient Design Institute and it also won a “most resilient home of the year award from Green Builder Media, so it may provide some valuable design tips for off grid ‘future proof home design’, you can read more here – </p> <p><strong><a href="/guides/1286/the-most-resilient-house-in-north-america/" target="_blank">Kenogami House - the most resilient house in North America </a></strong></p> <p>Some ideas from the outside in starting at a distance would be – build the home at a safe distance from trees and shrubbery, have a good band of non-combustible surface surrounding the home like patio stones or loose river stones, that will protect it from burning trees and grass fires. Exterior cladding should be non-combustible like cement board or metal. To protect against falling ash and embers be sure to have a metal roof and soffit.  A further level of protection would be fire proof insulation such as mineral wool behind siding.   </p