Take this assessment to see how prepared your home is to survive in the event of a wildfire.  The assessment provides a scoring system that will guide you to a better understanding of which factors make your home vulnerable and enable you to better prioritize improvements you can make.  The assessment also includes a section that will help you assess if you need to make improvements to help first responders defend your property.

MCFSC hosted an interdisciplinary fuels reduction training at the Brooktrails Greenbelt. The week-long event brought experts from around Mendocino County and the greater North Coast to discuss the varying perspectives on conducting effective fuels reduction while minimizing negative environmental impacts. Speakers included Mary Mayeda, NRCS Regional Forester, Dr. Mike Jones, UCCE Forestry Advisor, Kathy McCovey, Cultural & Natural Resource Specialist of the Karuk Tribe, Chris Bennet, local Arborist, and Dr. Jen Riddell, local Botanist, among others. Presentations were delivered to the MCFSC Chipper Crew, staffed by members of the Hopland Band of Pomo Indians and filmed to provide an online resource for new crew members moving forward.

Mendocino County Fire Safe Council’s Neighborhood Chipping Days are quickly becoming an essential service.  The program encourages residents to take defensible space into their own hands by offering free service from a chipper & chipper crew to process limbs and brush that residents remove to improve their defensible space. This service, which might cost each neighbor acting individually hundreds of dollars and require many individual disposal trips, makes vegetation management around the county more accessible and has generated thousands of hours of volunteer labor.

Check out this video presented by Colin Wilson, former Anderson Valley Fire Chief, who presents some basic information about fire behavior with the goal of helping you think through when and how to evacuate and when to consider sheltering in place.  Please watch and consider before you are in a situation where you may need to apply the learning.

In a wildfire, everyone may not be able to evacuate the burning area. In such situations, people have two choices: (1) staying at home and “sheltering in place,” which requires excellent fire safe preparation of your home and surroundings, or (2) going to a pre-designated and pre-prepared “Safety Zone.” Safety Zones are wide, cleared, open areas where you and your neighbors could go to survive a wildfire passing through.

When wildfires approach, your home's best defense starts with simple, preventative steps that can make all the difference. Don't wait until it's too late -- prepare your home now to withstand the threat of wildfires.