If you're tuned in to the ceaseless conversations about wildfire in our area, you've likely heard of Firewise Communities. We believe that approaching wildfire season with knowledge, understanding and a willingness to not only work on your home's fire resistance, but also collaborate with your neighbors and community is the beginning of a solution.

Our intention is to begin taking fire risk into the hands of our community to keep Sonoma County a sustainable and enjoyable place to live. If we can galvanize our community to collaborate and share knowledge we can create a safer, more steadfast community that will be much more resistant to wildfire risk.

NFPA's Firewise USA® program teaches people how to adapt to living with wildfire and encourages neighbors to work together and take action now to prevent losses. Join the growing network of more than 1,500 recognized Firewise USA® sites from across the nation taking action and ownership in preparing and protecting their homes against the threat of wildfire. 

 

How does the Firewise USA® program work?

Organize it

Form a board/committee that’s comprised of residents and other applicable wildfire stakeholders. Consider inviting the local fire department, state forestry agency, elected officials, emergency manager, and if applicable the property management company to participate. This group will collaborate on identifying the site’s boundary and size. Firewise sites need to have a minimum of 8 individual single family dwelling units and are limited to a maximum of 2,500. Multiple sites can be located within a single large master-planned community/HOA.

Plan it

Obtain a written wildfire risk assessment from your state forestry agency or fire department. The assessment should be a community-wide view that identifies areas of successful wildfire risk reduction and areas where improvements could be made. Emphasis should be on the general conditions of homes and related home ignition zones. The assessment is a living document and needs to be updated every five years.

• Contact your state liaison to learn more about the requirements and how to get started

• Some states use the Firewise USA template. (PDF)

Your board/committee will develop an action plan - a prioritized list of risk reduction projects/investments for the participating site, along with suggested homeowner actions and education activities that participants will strive to complete annually, or over a period of multiple years. Action plans should be updated at a minimum of at least every three years.

Do it

Host an outreach event and work with neighbors on addressing items in the action plan. These efforts will go towards your site’s annual wildfire risk reduction investment.

• Find examples (PDF) of activities that count towards your investment.

• Use our volunteer hourly worksheet (PDF) to collect information from residents in your community

At a minimum, each site is required to annually invest the equivalent of one volunteer hour per dwelling unit in wildfire risk reduction actions. If your site has identified 100 homes within its boundary, than 100 hours of work or the monetary equivalent, based on the independent sector value of volunteer time, need to be completed for that year.

Tell us about it

New applications can be completed online at portal.firewise.org. Tell us about the actions and efforts in your community to engage residents and complete mitigation work at the home level. Once all the criteria has been completed, the electronic application can be submitted. 

Please note: Individual states can request additional application requirements.