FIRESafe MARIN News

FIRESafe MARIN is pleased to welcome Western Oaks Village in Novato as Marin's newest Firewise USA site.

The homes are interspersed with vegetation including fine fuel, tall grasses, French Broom, all sizes of shrubs, and trees. The site has between 900-1000 trees, and is a classic WUI environment. 

3 Marin Firewise USA sites applied for grants from the NFPA and State Farm for Wildfire Community Preparedness Day projects.  All three grants were awarded through a competitive voting process, with the Marin support of FIRESafe MARIN's subscriber votes.

Grants were awarded to:

We need your daily votes for the next 2 weeks!

WIldfire Community Preparedness Day is May 4, 2019.  FIRESafe MARIN is helping spearhead local projects in neighborhoods all over Marin that day.  Several neighborhoods applied for special grant funding from State Farm Insurance and the NFPA to help support their projects that day.

Projects are selected based on the number of votes they receive!  Help us by voting for Marin's efforts!  You can vote once per day, per device!  Vote daily from now until March 1

Manor Hill, Fairfax: Project Overview

Register Online!

You're invited to join us for Marin's first FREE "Wildfire Safety and Vegetation Management Workshop For Contractors" to help Marin's many Green Industry professionals, including - TREE SERVICES, ARBORISTS, AND LANDSCAPERS - better understand Marin's wildfire risk, defensible space laws, and best practices for creating a wildfire resistant landscape.

Are you a neighborhood leader? Join us for a Firewise Workshop March 8, 2019

Friday, March 8, 2019 from 9am-11am, FIRESafe MARIN will host a community workshop to help Marin neighborhoods organize to achieve Firewise USA^® recognition. Learn about the benefits and challenges of the Firewise USA^® program and how it might fit for your for your neighborhood, while preparing a plan to help your community survive a wildfire. We'll have representatives on-hand from every Marin fire department, land management agencies like MMWD and Open Space, PG&E, and others to help you understand Marin's wildfire risk and develop a neighborhood-scale plan to address the risk. The NFPA's Firewise USA^® program is a process that empowers neighbors to work together in reducing their wildfire risk. Join the growing network of more than 1,500 recognized Firewise USA^® sites/communities (including 30 32 neighborhoods in Marin, more than any other county in California!) taking action and ownership in preparing and protecting their homes against the threat of wildfire.

This seminar is intended for neighborhood leaders interested in organizing a Firewise effort in their community - it's not a class for individual homeowners looking for wildfire safety tips. Look for homeowner preparedness classes beginning spring 2019 at www.firesafemarin.org!

Friday, March 8, 2019 from 9am-11am, FIRESafe MARIN will host a community workshop to help Marin neighborhoods organize to achieve Firewise USA^® recognition. Learn about the benefits and challenges of the Firewise USA^® program and how it might fit for your for your neighborhood, while preparing a plan to help your community survive a wildfire. We'll have representatives on-hand from every Marin fire department, land management agencies like MMWD and Open Space, PG&E, and others to help you understand Marin's wildfire risk and develop a neighborhood-scale plan to address the risk. The NFPA's Firewise USA^® program is a process that empowers neighbors to work together in reducing their wildfire risk. Join the growing network of more than 1,500 recognized Firewise USA^® sites/communities (including 30 neighborhoods in Marin, more than any other county in California!) taking action and ownership in preparing and protecting their homes against the threat of wildfire.

This seminar is intended for neighborhood leaders interested in organizing a Firewise effort in their community - it's not a class for individual homeowners looking for wildfire safety tips. Look for homeowner preparedness classes beginning spring 2019 at www.firesafemarin.org!

2017 and 2018 have marked a year of lessons learned for communities and firefighters across California.  In 2017, less than 1 year ago, the Tubbs Fire in Santa Rosa broke the record for homes destroyed by a single wildfire in modern US history.  One month later, the Thomas Fire in Southern California became the largest wildfire in California history.  Those records didn't last long.  The Camp Fire in Butte County started two days ago and is now the most destructive wildfire - burning nearly 7,000 12,000 19,000 structures (13,972 residences, 528 commercial and 4,293 other buildings) and destroying an entire city in just a few hours.  The 2018 Mendocino Complex fires shattered the Thomas fire's record after only 8 months, burning almost 3 times the area of what is now the second largest California fire.

While it's too early to know exactly what we'll learn from the Camp Fire, stories coming home from the front-lines reinforce a few important points about evacuations and protecting homes.

Marin now leads California in the number of recognized Firewise USA Communities ("sites")

With 30 recognized communities as of December 31, 2018, Marin has more Firewise sites than any other county in California, and we are now the fastest growing county in the United States!  We added 21 new communities in 2018, and plan to more than double that next year with the help of active neighborhood leaders and energized residents.

The Firewise USA Program encourages local solutions for safety by involving homeowners in taking individual responsibility for preparing their homes from the risk of wildfire. The program provides resources to help homeowners learn how to adapt to living with wildfire while encouraging and empowering neighbors to work together to take action now to reduce their wildfire risk and prevent losses.  Join the growing network of more than 1,500 recognized Firewise USA communities taking action and ownership in preparing and protecting their homes against the threat of wildfire.   

One year ago, tonight, the most destructive wildfires in California history ignited in the North Bay, destroying nearly 10,000 structures and killing 43 citizens.  In the following 10 months, California saw the two largest wildfires ever recorded in the state, and thousands more homes burned.  Let's not forget the lessons learned during this unprecedented year, and let's work together to make sure it doesn't happen again.  Fire season is NOT over in Marin, and it's not too late to prepare.

1. Evacuation Preparedness Guide
2. Creating Defensible Space
3. Hardening Your Home
4. Marin's Firewise USA Program

We received several angry emails this week when the Red Flag Warning for predicting severe fire weather was issued.  Each message contained the same refrain - aren't you overreacting since it just rained last week? 

A Red Flag Warning is issued by the United States National Weather Service, not FIRESafe MARIN.  All Red Flag Warnings are related to predicted weather and fuel moistures, and weather and fuel conditions must meet specific criteria.  A small amount of rainfall during the summer and fall months usually not increase live or dead fuel moistures significantly.   Current knowledge of fuels and fire behavior tells us that live fuel moistures can still at a critical level, and dead fuels will dry to their pre-rainfall level within 10 hours during a low humidity wind event.