More about Firewise Actions

Universal Firewise Actions

1. Develop and maintain a comprehensive contact list of residents.
2. Hold regular meetings – we recommend at least quarterly.
3. Promote Wildfire Education – utilize Fire Safe San Mateo and WPV-Ready resources.
4. Encourage participation in bi-annual chipper day events.
5. Hold an annual neighborhood walk to reassess hazards and note areas still needing improvement.
6. Hold an annual evacuation drill.
7. Work with your local fire department to report serious hazards.

Contact List

When you are starting a new Firewise Site, it can be helpful to place an announcement for a kickoff meeting or a solicitation for board members in Next Door and/or an HOA or similar local newsletter. Other options might include hosting a table at a neighborhood event, placing door hangers or simply knocking on doors to introduce yourself. Try to get email addresses for all contacts and create a master email list that you can use to announce meetings, educational events, drills or important wildfire safety information.

Meetings

With the advent of Zoom it has become much easier to hold meetings. Meetings are an excellent opportunity to hear the concerns of neighbors, provide wildfire education, and organize activities like neighborhood walks, evacuation drills, and promotion of chipper days. We recommend that you meet at least quarterly.

Wildfire Education

WPV-Ready has many resources that will help you to deliver wildfire safety information. During your regular meeting show one of the videos available on YouTube channel. Many of these are short but informative. At the conclusion of the video, facilitate a discussion to find out what people think about the information provided. It is best to choose a video that has suggested actions for homeowners to encourage residents to take action to make their families and property safer. If questions are raised that you cannot answer, just send an email to DEnea@woodsidefire.org and we will provide you with the information you need. Another idea would be to host a Wildfire Watch party. The show will likely stimulate some interesting discussion, you can get to know your neighbors and you can have some fun socializing.

Chipper Days

The WFPD Curbside Chipper Program is a great way to get residents to reduce fuels, improve defensible space and begin to create a fire smart landscape. Each Firewise Site should aggressively promote the program and encourage reluctant neighbors to participate in the cleanup. This is also an opportunity for neighbors to help a resident who may be unable physically or financially to clean up their property.

Neighborhood Walk

Encourage residents to participate in an annual neighborhood walk. For best success, combine this with a social activity like a BBQ or coffee and donuts. Get to know each other. You do not need to be a wildfire expert to lead the walk. You are simply looking to see if there is visible improvement to wildfire safety. Are more homeowners removing overgrown vegetation? Is there less flammable material close to homes (Zone 0 – the first 5 ft.)? On larger properties is there more cleared defensible space for firefighters to protect homes? Are problems in open space areas being addressed? If you see something that needs further explanation, simply take some photos and send to info@woodsidefire.org and we will get back to you with comments. If you see an obvious hazard, please contact us directly.

Evacuation Drill

All Firewise Sites should hold an annual evacuation drill. The purpose of these drills is to get residents to think about what they would do if they had to evacuate. This typically leads them to take actions like signing up for SMC Alert, packing a Go Bag, safe guarding important documents, etc.

Steps to Firewise USA Recognition

1. Form a Firewise Board/Committee

Form a board/committee that’s comprised of residents and other applicable wildfire stakeholders. This group will develop the site’s risk reduction priorities, a multi-year action plan, and complete the annual renewal requirements needed to retain an “in good standing” status.

2. Create a Wildfire Risk Assessment

Your Firewise committee will work together to write a wildfire risk assessment with the help of your local fire department and Fire Safe Marin. But, it’s important that the community take ownership and learn the concepts required to identify and reduce wildfire risks and hazards. The risk assessment will be the board/committee’s primary tool in determining the risk reduction priorities within your site’s boundaries. While there are defensible space and vegetation management requirements in the fire code, this assessment is not about code enforcement and the assessment itself does not carry any penalties. It will be used only to help inform future risk reduction strategies.

3. Develop an Action Plan

ShapeShapeAn action plan is a prioritized list of risk reduction projects that a Firewise site will complete over three years. It includes suggested homeowner actions and education activities. Action plans are developed by the board/committee and need updating at least every three years. As of 2022, Firewise USA requires California Firewise sites to use the following template for their action plan.

Download California Three Year Action Plan Template

4. Conduct Educational Outreach

Each participating site is required to have a minimum of one wildfire risk reduction educational outreach event annually. An easy way to accomplish this is to take advantage of Fire Safe San Mateo County’s educational programs. For example, participate in webinars and community workshops, and watch Fire Safe San Mateo County’s wildfire videos.

5. Make a Wildfire Risk Reduction Investment

At a minimum, each site is required to invest the equivalent of $27 per dwelling unit in wildfire risk reduction actions annually. This is the annual national hourly volunteer rate.

Note: Firewise USA Sites are not required to invest or pay any cash to meet the risk reduction investment obligation. Your volunteer time, and the time spent by homeowners clearing their property, count toward the investment. Look at it this way: each homeowner must invest and document one hour of work towards reducing wildfire risk. That’s it!

There are a wide range of qualifying expenditures (contractor costs, rental equipment, volunteer activities, grants, etc.), that can be used in meeting the investment. Residents completing select home modifications, along with any qualifying work performed at their home and in the adjacent home ignition zones, can contribute related hours and/or costs towards meeting the site’s collective investment amount.

Examples of investments tracked by money spent:

• Chipper costs: purchase/rental, fuel and oil, disposal fees, etc.
• Other equipment costs: chain saw purchase/rental, power equipment purchase/rental, hand tools, protective equipment, etc.
• ShapeContractor costs: arborists, landscapers, professional forestry services, debris removal, etc.
• Home improvement costs: roofs, decks, windows, vent screening, retrofits, etc.
• Grants: grant awards not accounted for in the costs previously recorded
• Vehicle mileage: slash drop-off, rental equipment pickup, meetings, etc.

6. Application

You may start an application at any point in the overall process by creating a site profile in the Firewise USA^™ portal. Once all criteria are complete, the electronic application can be submitted. State liaisons will approve applications, with final processing completed by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA).