Wildfire Safety and Preparedness

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: