Ten years ago, I never really thought much about wildfires – even though I live in a heavily wooded area in Santa Cruz County. But now, I make architectural, landscaping, and even social decisions based on how they affect fire safety. That’s why I’m thrilled that my neighborhood of 260 homes on North Rodeo Gulch Road in Soquel is now officially recognized as a Firewise USA community.
What does that mean?
- Save money on homeowner’s insurance
- Work with neighbors to clear our properties
- Share concerns on our forum
- Receive free chipping
- Communicate using our MURS radios during emergencies
- Improve address and road signage
- Gather for annual NRG Firewise events
I’m organizing our 2nd annual event on April 23rd with a lineup of experts who will discuss evacuation plans, emergency communications (when power is out), clearing 100 feet around homes, group clearing projects, signage, and more. Come out to learn when to evacuate and how you can save your home when a wildfire strikes. Fire season is year round.
Check out our website: NRGfirewise.com.
Ten years ago, I never really thought much about wildfires – even though I live in a heavily wooded area in Santa Cruz County. But now, I make architectural, landscaping, and even social decisions based on how they affect fire safety. That’s why I’m thrilled that my neighborhood of 260 homes on North Rodeo Gulch Road in Soquel is now officially recognized as a Firewise USA community.
What does that mean?
- Save money on homeowner’s insurance
- Work with neighbors to clear our properties
- Share concerns on our forum
- Receive free chipping
- Communicate using our MURS radios during emergencies
- Improve address and road signage
- Gather for annual NRG Firewise events
I’m organizing our 2nd annual event on April 23rd with a lineup of experts who will discuss evacuation plans, emergency communications (when power is out), clearing 100 feet around homes, group clearing projects, signage, and more. Come out to learn when to evacuate and how you can save your home when a wildfire strikes. Fire season is year round.
Check out our website: NRGfirewise.com.
Living in a tinderbox in one of the most beautiful places on earth causes one to wonder if I’m crazy for living on 2-acres at the base of the Santa Cruz Mountains. Rather than run (to where?), I’ve made it my mission to make my neighborhood of almost 200 homes more fire safe by organizing and applying to become a Firewise USA recognized community.
I hosted a well-attended event with over 15 speakers to discuss clever and innovative ways that we can mitigate wildfire. Supervisor Manu Koenig spoke about what he’s doing to improve our roads and support Firewise neighbors. Central Fire Deputy Marshal Marco Mack discussed his proposal to get reflective address and road signs up so EMS and firefighters can find us and why everyone should sign up for CODE-Red, and Tony Akin, Central Fire, shared tips on home hardening, evacuation, and sheltering in place.
Then we had experts talk about using ham and MURS radio communication when our power goes out. Others talked about CERT, Go Bags, and limbing up and trimming trees. Having these enthusiastic members of nonprofit organizations sharing their tips and encouraging our neighbors to get involved created a powerful message: We can do something to reduce our fire risk.
My community wanted to know about fire-retardant paint and other products so I invited vendors to talk about the best vents (Vulcan Vents), paints (Firefree), services (Safer Building Solutions), and fire insurance and Wildfire Defense Systems (State Farm). Guests talked to these vendors about their individual concerns for hours after the event.
I invited 2 of my students to share their solutions for keeping their homes safe. Arul Mathur introduced F.A.C.E. (Fire Activated Canister Extinguisher) and Anush Anand discussed how vinyl gutters and siding are flammable.
Check out the video to learn more.