Cal Fire Mendocino Trains Volunteer Fire Risk Assessors

 Reducing fire risk is an everyday activity—and suggestions from assessors can help.

By Sarah Reith

MENDOCINO CO., 3/22/25 — Mendocino County residents showed Cal Fire trainers that they are serious about fire prevention at a two-day class in Redwood Valley in mid-March. Cal Fire’s new assessment training program offered local volunteers an opportunity to learn what Cal Fire inspectors look for when assessing residential fire risks. The program was held for people who serve in various roles: on fire safe councils, as part of neighborhood Firewise groups, and others. Those who attended the program can become qualified to use Cal Fire’s assessment software to implement a recently amended Public Resource Code aiming to increase home-hardening and defensible space in California.

More than 55 representatives of Mendocino County’s qualified entities attended the recent assessor training. It was the program’s largest class so far, filling every seat in the room and every parking spot in the parking lot at the Mendocino County Behavioral Health Training Center in Redwood Valley.

In January 2023, the California State Legislature decided that qualified entities such as fire safe councils, Firewise USA® organizations, resource conservation districts, and political subdivisions of the state can be trained to conduct fire-safety assessments in their neighborhoods. Participants receive the same training as Cal Fire inspectors, except that they are not empowered to enforce the rules. This frees up Cal Fire inspectors to focus on properties out of compliance with current defensible-space regulations—or, as Gene Potkey put it, give participants “a peek at the test before the inspectors show up.”

Gene Potkey is an assistant chief for Cal Fire’s Office of the State Fire Marshal, under the Community Wildfire Preparedness and Mitigation Division, overseeing the defensible space program statewide. Based in Sacramento, Potkey also manages and implements the qualified entities program.

He explains that “There is no enforcement mechanism tied to this program. The assessors are trained to the same level as Cal Fire’s defensible-space inspectors. They will educate the public to the same standard that our inspectors will enforce. They’re preparing the homeowner for that eventual inspection” or, more to the point, for a wildfire that could strike at any time.

The fact that the assessors have no enforcement power gives homeowners security in obtaining a first-hand look at their situations without the risk of being found noncompliant. The assessors can make plenty of suggestions to fix issues before a Cal Fire inspector ever shows up. And those suggestions are bound to make the talk with an insurance agent more productive.

In terms of violations, Cal Fire currently does not enforce shortfalls in home-hardening such as combustible building materials or vent screens with openings larger than 1/8-inch. Only defensible-space violations are subject to possible fines, and only after 30 days if a homeowner has made no progress in addressing them. Potentially, if violations persist to the point of three fines within a five-year period, property owners could face a lien on their property, with a state crew sent to mitigate the issue.

“It’s continuous, all year long,” says Craig Dudley, the Cal Fire Fire Prevention Battalion Chief in Mendocino County. In his travels around our rugged rural landscape, he sees “a fair percentage of homes that don’t meet all the standards under Public Resource Code 4291. Most residents are good about the basics—weed-eating, mowing and keeping debris off their roofs”—but when it comes to maintaining 100 feet of defensible space around homes, “it’s a little more complex. It’s demanding work, and not everyone is capable of that. And we understand that. So if we can get the public to better understand, and do what they can, it’s a start.” 

Dudley is hoping that the newly trained non-Cal Fire assessors will fan out across the county and reach a greater population than he and his crew can reach on their own. “We’ve had some devastating fires in this county over the years,” he reflects, “and they grab people’s attention. But as time goes on, we forget.” Getting more qualified entities out there will help people keep up the work that must continue year after year. 

Natasha Fouts, a fire prevention specialist for Cal Fire’s Office of the State Fire Marshal’s Defensible Space Program in Sacramento, offers some reassurance about creating defensible space. Hint: it doesn’t mean razing every shred of living plant matter to the ground. “It’s okay to have trees on your property,” she says. “It’s okay to have vegetation. It’s okay to have mulch around your plants. We just don’t want to have that within five feet of your house.” 

On her own property in rural California, she says, “I have a lot of native plants. I have trees on my property. I just keep them pruned up, I remove the dead branches, and I keep the vegetation in islands, to break a fire’s path. We’re not saying you should have no vegetation—we’re just saying make sure it’s properly maintained.”

Home-hardening and defensible space create a hostile environment for embers, which can smolder unseen until it’s too late, later flaring up to ignite whatever they can reach. In addition to protecting your own home, Fouts says that good defensible space can keep everyone around you safer, including firefighters. “When they’re tasked with protecting homes during a fire, if you have that good defensible space, you’re giving them a safe area to work in,” she notes. 

And that’s not all—like most people who live in a wildfire-prone landscape, she says, “One of the things I love about living in a rural area is the beautiful trees and the wildlife. It’s more than just the government telling you what to do on your property. We need to look at it in more of a communal way. It’s to help protect your neighbors, the firefighters, and the wildlife that we’re blessed to have if we live in a rural area.”

And now, thanks to the assessment training, there is very likely a qualified home inspector in your area who can help you prioritize what improvements you can start making. To schedule your own free, non-judgmental, non-enforced Home Assessment, contact the Mendocino County Fire Safe Council at 707-462-3662 or admin@firesafemendocino.org