Neighborhood

Residents and the neighborhoods they live in are linked by their wildfire risk. If one home is inadequately prepared, the risk level to the entire neighborhood increases. Everyone’s safety is impacted, including firefighters and emergency responders. Work with your neighbors and the local fire department to make your neighborhood more fire adapted.

Don’t get caught without a plan!
First, talk to your neighbors about becoming a Firewise Community. The Firewise Communities/USA® Recognition Program provides a series of steps to prepare homes and neighborhoods in advance of a wildfire. Firewise helps to direct community efforts and identify common goals. There are, currently, over 900 recognized communities in nearly all of the 50 states. Make yours the next one!

Second, make sure you have an emergency preparedness plan. Know what to do and where to go before poor visibility, smoke, and flames cause panic and confusion. Ask your local fire department about how the national Ready, Set, Go! Program can help you and your neighborhood work with the fire department to plan ahead: create an emergency kit, build situational awareness when a fire threatens, and get your property ready with Firewise principles.

Success Story: Huntsville– A Ready, Set, Go and Firewise success! (Texas)

Mitigation work performed in the Elkins Lake community.

Located on the edge of the Sam Houston National Forest, Huntsville is no stranger to wildfires. Small, low intensity blazes are a frequent event in the grasslands and wooded areas that surround Huntsville. The natural fire regime has been significantly altered in recent years due to a prolonged statewide drought. This historic drought has led to a dramatic increase in wildfire incidents and severity. To address their heightened wildfire risk, Huntsville embarked on a number of fire prevention and education efforts, most notably a series of defensible space mitigation projects and adopting the Ready, Set, Go! Program.

The Ready, Set, Go! (RSG) Program, managed by the International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC), seeks to develop and improve the dialogue between fire departments and the residents they serve on wildland fire understanding and action.  The program tenants help residents be Ready with preparedness understanding, be Set with situational awareness when fire threatens, and to Go early when a fire starts.   In 2010, Huntsville was one of nine fire departments chosen to pilot the program. The result has been the development of firefighter led informational sessions and the creation of instruction manuals, detailing the specifics of the program that reflect the local experience, needs of residents, and protocols in wildland fire response.

In addition to Ready, Set, Go!, Huntsville is covered by Walker County’s Community Wildfire Protection Plan, which has placed a heavy emphasis on developing Firewise communities. Elkins Lake is the most recent community to achieve Firewise status, receiving that distinction in 2011. Many residents have taken the initiative to create defensible space around their property, as well as a fuel break around the community of Elkins Lake.

Huntsville’s Assistant Fire Chief, John Hobbs, noted that “people have gotten their act together. Four years ago, some of the subdivisions were terrible. That [defensible] space gives us room to fight the fire.” Plans are currently underway to dispose of the cleared vegetation using prescribed burns.  Limited resources and liability concerns, however, requires help from the public in the form of prescribed fire associations.  The South Central Texas Burn Association, along with the Texas Forest Service, are working to bring to a prescribed fire association to Huntsville in the coming months.

Fire Adapted Community initiatives in Huntsville include:

  • Ready, Set, Go!
  • Firewise
  • Walker County Community Wildfire Protection Plan
  • Public education programs
  • Thinning projects and prescribed burning
  • Community of Elkins Lake fuel break
  • Prescribed burning associations

Story sources:

Tori Brock, Ready, Set, Go!, The Huntsville Item (last visited Feb. 26, 2012).
Tori Brock, Now is the time to burn, The Huntsville Item (last visited Feb. 26, 2012)

Photo credit: Hunstville Fire Department

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