What Is Firewise® Madera County?
Firewise® Madera County (FMC) is an education and outreach program of the Cascadel Ranch Fire Safe Council designed to protect lives and property from wildfire through education. The program assists residents with obtaining the knowledge they need to take responsibility, and take action, to protect themselves from wildfire and other emergencies.
The Cascadel Ranch FSC sponsors the FMC website and online course creation, inspired by the Firewise® USA program of the National Fire Protection Agency (NFPA).
Through the FMC website, you can learn how to Harden Your Home, participate in Firewise® USA. Your collaborators are the NFPA, CAL FIRE, USFS, the Eastern Madera County Fire Safe Council, and various other agencies.
The NFPA Firewise® USA education and preparedness program, and their national community recognition program, has been educating and facilitating fire wise activities since 1986.
Madera County CWPP
The Firewise® program dovetails perfectly with the county’s stated goals in their wildfire protection plan.
Firewise® Madera County will assist with ongoing education, implementation, and plan refinement of the Madera County Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP).
The Madera County CWPP was formally approved in 2008.
Firewise® USA
Firewise® Madera County is part of the Firewise® Communities USA program with a stated purpose of:
The National Fire Protection Association’s (NFPA) Firewise® Communities program encourages local solutions for wildfire safety by involving homeowners, community leaders, planners, developers, firefighters, and others in the effort to protect people and property from the risk of wildfire.”
The Firewise® Communities program was established by the NFPA to bring greater awareness to property owners in high fire danger areas as to what they can DO to help become wise regarding fire. Firewise® mitigation activities include:
- Hardening your home against wildfire
- Thinning/pruning/tree removal/brush clearing on private property in the home ignition zone.
- Managing private forest lands
- Organizing a community slash pickup or chipping day
- Creating or improving roads for better access/egress
- Improving the water supply for firefighting
- Educating the public through sponsored activities or events throughout the community
- And More
To help people protect their lives and property from wildfire, NFPA’s Firewise® USA program teaches people how to adapt to living with wildfire and encourages neighbors to work together and take action now to prevent losses.”
Click Here for the Very Interesting History of the Firewise® NFPA Program
While there are many legitimate and important factors in fire danger that need to be addressed and mitigated, being firewise truly starts at home.
YOU must take action to be fire wise.
You are the only one authorized to harden your home. Your action to harden your home is the only way to prevent future catastrophic loss of structures to wildfire. With Firewise® Madera County, you are not alone.
Teaching at risk residents to be educated, proactive and taking real action to protect their lives and homes is Firewise® Madera County’s goal.
Part of that goal involves being here to help you every step of the way as a resource, for home and structure assessments, and for ongoing facilitation and follow up.
To read more about the Firewise® Communities program and its focus on teaching collaborative personal responsibility for home ignition zones in high fire danger areas click here.