Wildfire Preparedness Week, Day 7: Help a Neighbor, Organize a Neighborhood

Wildfire Preparedness Week is May 1-7, 2017.  Follow our daily updates for an easy, step by step guide to protecting your home!

This week, Fire Safe Marin will provide a simple, 7 day guide to improving your home and family’s wildfire preparedness with simple, easy, inexpensive tips.

Day 7: Help a Neighbor, Organize a Neighborhood

Now that you’ve followed our step-by-step guide to preparing your home and family for wildfire, why not organize your entire neighborhood?  In order to be truly “fire safe,” every home in your community needs to play its part in preparing, by creating defensible space and using fire-safe building materials and practices.

1. Helping an elderly or disabled neighbor create defensible space is a great way to build community, and every resident of your neighborhood will benefit, since wildfire, by definition, knows no boundaries.  
2. Organize a community chipper day to dispose of cut vegetation.  Fire Safe Marin manages a grant program to help neighborhoods cover the expense of holding a chipper day.  We sponsor chipper days and green waste disposal days every spring and summer.
3. Participate in the “Ready Marin” program to learn more about disaster preparedness in general, and to learn about community resources like C.E.R.T. that can help when any disaster strikes, including wildfire.
4. Consider organizing your neighborhood to achieve “FIREWISE Community” status. This program can save every resident of an accredited neighborhood up to 20% on homeowner’s insurance and is a great step towards protecting Marin from wildfire.  As of 20165, 7 neighborhoods in Marin have achieved FIREWISE recognition.   Contact Fire Safe Marin for more information.

Fire Safe Marin Can Help Your Neighborhood Achieve FIREWISE COMMUNITY Recognition!

NFPA’s Firewise Communities Program encourages local solutions for safety by involving homeowners in taking individual responsibility for preparing their homes from the risk of wildfire. Firewise is a key component of Fire Adapted Communities – a collaborative approach that connects all those who play a role in wildfire education, planning and action with comprehensive resources to help reduce risk.

The program is co-sponsored by the USDA Forest Service, the US Department of the Interior, and the National Association of State Foresters.

To save lives and property from wildfire, NFPA’s Firewise Communities program teaches people how to adapt to living with wildfire and encourages neighbors to work together and take action now to prevent losses. We all have a role to play in protecting ourselves and each other from the risk of wildfire.

WILDFIRE PREPAREDNESS WEEK: A FIRE SAFE HOME IN 7 DAYS

Thanks for following our simple 7 day wildfire preparedness program, in honor of the 2017 Wildfire Preparedness Week.  By committing one hour a day, for a week, you truly made a difference.  Look for weekly newsletters from Fire Safe Marin during fire season, and be vigilant and safe this fire-season.

• Wildfire Preparedness Week, Day 6: Go! Create an Evacuation Plan
• Wildfire Preparedness Week, Day 5: Now that You’re Ready, Get Set!
• Wildfire Preparedness Week, Day 4: Choose Fire Safe Plants
• Wildfire Preparedness Week, Day 3: Expand Your Defensible Space
• Wildfire Preparedness Week, Day 2: Cut Your Grass!
• Wildfire Preparedness Week, Day 1: Clean Your Roof and Gutters!
• Wildfire Preparedness: A Community Responsibility