During the last decade, more countries have become considerably affected by wildfire. In Europe for example, northern countries such as Sweden, Norway and Scotland realized that they are not immune to this phenomenon. In Australasia, recent exposure of New Zealand’s urban communities to destructive wildfires has prompted local researchers to design new multidisciplinary research projects, ultimately aiming to prepare New Zealand society to face more sever Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) fires. This article briefly discusses the state of the problem and describe some of the current and upcoming local research projects around this topic.