FIRESafe MARIN News

It's Wildfire Preparedness Week.  Follow our daily updates for an easy, step by step guide to protecting your home!

This week, FIRESafe MARIN will provide a simple, 7 day guide to improving your home and family's wildfire preparedness with simple, easy, inexpensive tips.

Day 2: Cut Your Grass!

Marin's grasslands provide the fuel for our most frequent and fast moving wildfires.  Dry grass is particularly susceptible to ignition -  carelessly dropped cigarettes, illegal fireworks, mower blades, and hot car mufflers frequently ignite grass fires.  These fast-moving fires damage and destroy homes every year in California and Marin, often in the first few minutes of a wildfire before firefighters arrive.

This is Wildfire Preparedness Week.  Follow our daily updates for an easy, step by step guide to protecting your home!

This week, FIRESafe MARIN will provide a simple, 7 day guide to improving your home and family's wildfire preparedness with simple, easy, inexpensive tips.

Day 1: Clean Your Roof and Rain Gutters!

The single most effective step you can take to protect your home TODAY is to clean all leaves, needles, and debris from your roof and rain gutters!  The most vulnerable part of your home is typically the roof.  Although Class "A" roof construction, required in most Marin jurisdictions for nearly 20 years, is more resistant to fire, even a small handful of leaves or needles can ignite your "fire resistant" roofing.  Fire inspectors find that most homeowners do not properly maintain their roofs, leaving Marin's neighborhoods vulnerable to wildfires.

FIRESafe MARIN will host two trial runs of an online "ZOOM" version of our popular Living With Fire program, Monday May 4 and Wednesday May 6.  These 45-60 minute presentations will cover specific topics, and moderators will be online to take your (typed) questions.

Due to COVID-19, we cancelled our April and May live presentations.  To fill the gap and reach a wider audience, we'll present shorter verions online, using Zoom, in a trial format.  We'll reach out to attendees and ask that they provide honest feedback on the presentation content and technology, to help us develop better online education programs for delivery in the future.

2020 Wildfire Community Preparedness Day project funding award winners

Thanks to the generous support from State Farm Insurance and the NFPA, 150 communities in the US received project funding awards to support activities aimed at reducing potential loss of life, property and natural resources to wildfire. 

Dominican-Black Canyon, Oak Manor Ridge, and Woodhaven Road Firewise sites each received $500 grants.  Congratulations to these highly motivated communities, and to Firewise USA leaders Jay Hubert, Mary Vidal, and Gina Nellesen!

NFPA has created Prep Day to raise awareness of wildfire risk, to share information and knowledge, and to help residents make changes to improve the survival of their homes and neighborhoods.  

NFPA webinars are presented by industry subject matter experts who take you inside today's codes and give you the latest industry and research developments. Learn about important technical changes in NFPA codes and standards, and stay up-to-date on fire protection, life safety, health care, electrical safety, wildfire, and fire safety research topics. 

Upcoming webinars

• Wildfires and Insurance: Learn How to Prepare Financially
  Wednesday, May 6, 1 p.m. EDT
  Nicole Mahrt-Ganley, American Property Casualty Insurance Association / Janet Ruiz, Insurance Information Institute
• Wildfires and Insurance: How to Protect Your Property from Wildfire
  Wednesday, May 20, 1 p.m. EDT
  Daniel Gorham and Faraz Hedayati, Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety

With the threat of COVID-19 at the top of everyone's minds, FIRESafe MARIN has taken the necessary steps to protect staff, neighborhood leaders, and the community. In response to recommendations from the Center for Disease Control (CDC), FIRESafe MARIN staff are working remotely and all organization and Firewise USA leader meetings have been postponed. All in-person community education and meetings are on-hold until further notice.

The County of Marin Department of Public Health has established that vegetation management project for public safety and wildfire preparedness are en essentila public service. FIRESafe MARIN will continue ongoing, grant-funded projects to reduce wildfire hazards durint the shelter-in-place order. We are currently working to reduce roadside vegetation in Central Marin using contractors. Our contractors are utilizing protective measures, including: social distancing among workers and the public; limited public contact; sanitation of tools, and using single tools per crew-member; portable hand washing stations; N95 masks and other PPE if appropriate.

With Marin's "Measure C" on the March 3rd ballot, it's important to keep in mind the wildfires and decades of planning that have lead to this historic effort. FIRESafe MARIN has worked for 29 years to keep Marin homeowners, landowners, private industry, and public agencies, engaged in wildfire risk reduction. The Marin Wildfire Prevention Initiative and Measure C is in many ways the culmination of FIRESafe MARIN's vision.

Since our inception in the aftermath of 1991's firestorm in the nearby Oakland and Berkeley hills, we've worked with the understanding that what your neighbors do matters: a resident of Fairfax must be just as concerned about wildfire prevention efforts in Novato as they are about their neighbors across the street (Case in Point: Marin's largest wildfire in 1923 burned from Novato all the way to Fairfax in a matter of hours).

Project work is underway in Corte Madera, Larkspur, Fairfax, and San Anselmo - February through April 2020. 

As California expands efforts to prevent devastating wildfires, CAL FIRE announced on April 16 over $43 million in grants awarded to 66 local fire prevention projects across the state. In Marin county, FIRESafe MARIN was selected to receive $993,500 to help fund a $1.3 million project aimed at improving the safety of evacuation routes in seven central Marin communities. This is one-time funding, with no funds available for maintenance. This grant will allow FIRESafe MARIN to make a "first-pass" at roadside maintenance in seven neighborhoods with critical wildfire evacuation hazards. Please support Measure C on the March 3 ballot if you want to see this type of work in ALL at-risk neighborhoods, and the long term maintenance that's required.

The grant provides funding to seven hillside neighborhoods along the eastern slopes of Mt. Tamalpais.  In order to improve evacuation routes there, vegetation will be reduced along more than 55 miles of roads, improving access and egress, and strategically dispersing fuel reduction over a 3,000-acre geographic area with a long history of wildfires.  The project locations were selected based on priorities identified in the 2016 Marin Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP - www.firesafemarin.org/cwpp).

Weather conditions predicted for this weekend, Saturday through Monday are CRITICAL in all parts of Marin. The Fire Weather Watch has been upgraded to a Red Flag Warning. The National Weather Service is predicting conditions similar to, or potentially exceeding, what was observed during the North Bay fires of 2017. Extreme fire weather conditions will impact Marin county. The weather service referred to the forecasted winds as "historic." We aren't taking this warning lightly at FIRESafe MARIN, and neither should you. Prepare TODAY.

 Marin County, CA -- The National Weather Service has issued a Red Flag Warning and High Wind Advisory for the North Bay Mountains, interior valleys and other parts of the Bay Area, which is in effect from 8 PM Saturday to 11 AM Monday.