The key to surviving a wildfire and protecting your home is being prepared!!!
You don’t have to live near a canyon or forest for your property to be threatened by wildfire. Nearly one third of U.S. homes are in wildfire-prone areas, according to the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety. California is behind Texas as the most wildfire – prone states.
The 2018 wildfire season was the deadliest and most destructive wildfire season ever recorded in California, with 97 civilians and 6 firefighters killed. A total of 8,527 fires burning an area of 1,893,913 acres – the largest area of burned acreage recorded in a fire season, according to the California Department of Forestry. As of May 2019, insurance claims related to the 2018 fire season had reached $12 billion, most related to the Camp Fire in Butte County.
Prepare for a fire:
- Have fire extinguishers located throughout your home.
- Have an emergency evacuation plan including an established meeting place, practice the plan.
- Consider where you will be evacuating family members, pets and/or livestock.
- Identify resources in your neighborhood/community you can call if you are at work/on vacation to help you.
- Record and document the contents of your home using photos, and keep this information safe by preserving in a different location for insurance purposes.
- Teach family members how to survive catching on fire – stop drop and roll.
When fire is approaching and it safe to do so, prepare your home:
- Relocate any flammable furniture or materials in close proximity away from the home.
- Close shutters, blinds and heavy drapes.
- Close fireplace dampers and screens.
- Shut all interior and exterior doors, and leave them unlocked.
- Put a note on the front door with names of all evacuees, time and date of evacuation, the intended destination and contact information.
- Place a ladder outside for access to the roof.
- If possible, leave a running sprinkler on the roof of your home.
Know the 5 P’s of immediate evacuation:
- People and pets
- Papers and important documents
- Prescriptions
- Pictures and irreplaceable memories
- Personal computers

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