



“That's where the California Wildfire Mitigation Program really steps in and provides the expertise, the education, the funding to back all of those mitigation measures at the level of each individual property,” Hawks said. While the guidance is available for anyone to implement voluntarily, the cost of putting it into practice may be steep for some. The strategy described in the report is the keystone of the recently launched California pilot program, which is meant to provide support to communities statewide.
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The way we aim to reduce those losses is to upgrade structures and then create defensible space around them,” said Steven Hawks, CAL FIRE chief and report co-author. “We've seen all these destructive wildfires come through and burn thousands of homes. This new approach, which is already being implemented in California by the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES) and CAL FIRE through a pilot program called the California Wildfire Mitigation Program, could spare homes and lives from the intensifying threat of wildfires. Developed by fire safety experts at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE) and the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS), the guidance provides dozens of protective actions - and the context in which each should be taken - all backed by the latest fire science. To shield houses against such a fierce threat, a thorough defense is key.Įstablishing a deep and multifaceted defense in and around homes is the basis of a new report that offers direction for safeguarding residences from external fire threats. Once they have a foothold, severe wildfires can quickly overwhelm a community, particularly one that is densely packed.
