Why Organize a Firewise Community?
What is Firewise?
The Firewise USA® program provides simple, effective steps to help communities reduce the risk of destruction from wildfire. Residents join together as a Firewise site and take actions to prepare themselves, their homes, and their properties against the threat of wildfire. They look out for one another and provide those in need of assistance with help in emergency preparation.
Why form a Firewise Community?
Today’s wildfires are occurring with increasing frequency and magnitude, especially in high-risk areas like Shasta County. While these fires continue to happen, taking preventative measures can be a small way to help protect your home, neighborhood, and the safety of your family.
Firewise sites promote a culture of readiness and action that will save lives and homes in the event of a wildfire. Working together to identify risks and solve problems, the neighborhood takes on projects that may be overwhelming alone. Neighborhood clean-up days and evacuation drills turn burdensome and scary challenges into communal events.
Firewise USA® provides up to date take-action information to residents that helps them change the outcome of a wildfire in terms of home and neighborhood safety. Residents who participate in the process create an action plan that commits them to a sustained program of wildfire risk reduction that is both physically doable and cost-effective.
Several residential insurance companies offer both community-wide discounts (for example, a home in a Firewise community) and home-specific discounts (for example, maintaining defensible space or home-safety measures against wind-blown embers). In some cases, these discounts can be combined. Because discounts and eligibility differ by company, we urge you to contact your insurance company directly to find out if your property qualifies. Visit the California Department of Insurance webpage for more information.
What do Firewise Communities do?
- Get to know one another and develop a contact list for the neighborhood.
- Create plans and goals to reduce wildfire risk.
- Hold regular meetings to share information and plan events.
- Promote wildfire education.
- Hold evacuation drills.
- Hold a neighborhood walk to note areas that need improvement.
- Report serious hazards to your local fire department.
- Encourage participation in annual defensible space events.
For more infomation on becomeing a Firewise Community, click the resources below or contact shasta.fsc@shastafiresafe.org
