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Wildfire season: 7 ways you can help save lives and property

Homeowners living within a mile of forests or any fire-prone landscape – public or private, rural or urban – can take simple preventive steps to limit damage from wildfires. Here are seven ways to help your community become "fire adapted" and contain rising fire-control costs.

5. Write a Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP)

Nick Ut/AP
Firefighters work on extinguishing a fire in the Los Padres National Forrest near Santa Barbara, Calif., on May 28, 2013.

  • By Jonathan Harsch Contributor

You may live in a community where your homeowners association still requires cedar shakes and evergreen plantings near each home. The Forest Service sees slow progress toward changing such fire-blind attitudes: “The National Association of State Foresters (NASF) estimates that nearly 6,000 communities nationwide had developed and implemented CWPPs by 2009, but these accounted for less than 10 percent of the nearly 70,000 communities identified by NASF as being at-risk.”

As a homeowner, you can do your part by supporting new local zoning ordinances and codes to enforce the following:

  • Mandatory defensible-space standards, as listed in Step 2 to create a wildfire defense zone.
  • Wildfire review processes for planned developments.
  • Subdivision regulations.
  • Development plan standards applied to both existing and planned new developments.
  • Realtor disclosure of wildfire hazard zones.
  • Water availability requirements.
  • Access for firefighting equipment.
  • Evacuation plans for residents.
  • Insurance incentives for reducing risks in home ignition zones.
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Mark Sappenfield
Editor

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