Free Home Assessments

Learn how to prepare your home to withstand a wildfire

How vulnerable is your home? If a wildfire came through your neighborhood, would it be likely to survive intact?

There is a lot you can do to prepare for the best possible outcome, and we can help. Some fixes are costly, but many others are simple, inexpensive, and easy to do yourself.

Our assessments are free, non-judgmental, and non-binding; we provide follow-up assistance but not enforcement.

SCHEDULE YOUR ASSESSMENT

The Mendocino County Fire Safe Council’s Home Assessor can visit your home and explain how to use basic fire-science principles to your best advantage.

They will give you customized advice and specific steps you can take to protect your property, identifying weaknesses you may have overlooked so that you can proceed with added confidence, at your own pace, knowing that you now have the benefit of current science and customized advice for a safer home.

You can get to the top of the line by helping us organize a small evaluation event in your community (see “Invite Your Neighbors” below).

This amazing FREE opportunity gives you a non-judgmental, non-binding, non-regulatory, risk-free educational experience.

explain the basics of assessing your home’s wildfire risks
review the most important steps you can take to reduce those risks
walk through your property to identify which improvements are highest priority
answer any questions you may have, and
leave literature and resources, if you like, to help you learn even more.

Invite Your Neighbors!

You can gain added value if you (optionally) invite neighbors, friends and family to attend your home assessment. This gives everyone in-depth, real-life demonstrations of the principles and best practices of wildfire readiness. And who doesn’t enjoy a stroll through a neighbor’s backyard?

For efficiency and reduction of travel distances, we try to schedule 3–5 assessments in the same area on a single day. So please talk to your neighbors about signing up on the same day; multiple nearby assessments requested on the same day makes it more likely that they will be scheduled.

Homes are often only as fire-safe as their neighbors’ homes in a wildfire event, so this is also a wise strategy for making surrounding properties safer too.

Start with your Neighborhood Fire Safe Council

One of the best ways to start is by contacting your local Neighborhood Fire Safe Council (NFSC) – or consider starting one, if your area doesn’t have one yet, to begin to mobilize other local residents. NFSCs can also provide information, support and resources for even greater wildfire safety. If that is not an option, you can just call or email us to get on the list (contact information is below).

What’s Next?

After your assessment, the next step often involves hiring professionals to do home-hardening work or create defensible space by tree-trimming or brush-clearing in your yard or along your driveway. We now offer free Defensible Space Assistance For Income-Eligible seniors and/or residents with disabilities (DSAFIE). For other residents of any age, ability or income level, we are currently seeking funding for a cost-share program that would pay half of the cost of your defensible-space clearing.

If you want to do your own Home Wildfire Readiness Assessment, click here for a guide that will help you assess and make improvements.