By Andy Guan, Resident Lead
The Sherwick Community and its neighbors were badly damaged in the 1991 Oakland Firestorm, and the area is still home to several survivors. Ever since then, we have been proactively working on fire prevention measures, from fuel reduction to home hardening upgrades.
We first became aware of the Firewise program because of the recent hike in the fire portion of our homeowners insurance, which even resulted in some of our neighbors getting dropped by their insurers. We visited the Firewise website to do research and created an account, which led us to the application page. Curious about the process, we clicked through the 11 steps using the simple tools on the website. Before we knew it, we had completed our application!
Here are a few pointers that will make the application process easy for future applicants:
- Prior knowledge of wildfire risk management. Our area is subject to annual fire inspections with very tight requirements. For example, tree branches must be six feet above the ground, and no loose fire fuels are allowed. Through this process, our community has learned a lot about wildfire risk management over the years. You can contact your regional firewise coordinator and they will provide you with this information.
- Tracking vegetation clearing activities. There is a calendar that publishes inspection dates, making it easy to track our vegetation management for fire inspection. We tracked how many green bins we filled, which helped us measure the level of effort we put in to meet inspection requirements.
- Knowing your neighbors. This helps tremendously, as the application requires a minimum of eight dwelling units and participants.
- Contacting your regional Firewise lead. Reach out to them to assist you with the process! We didn’t originally know that was an option.
Special thanks to Tim Quickel, CAL FIRE Fire Captain, for reviewing our application. He quickly let us know where it was insufficient, allowing us to correct our three-year action plan and get it approved. We submitted our application on July 28, 2026, and were approved on August 10, 2026.
Tim also recommended having a regional coordinator. Through web research, I found our local Firewise lead and listed Joelle Fraser’s contact information without realizing I could get direct help from her! Joelle has been an amazing resource, providing deep knowledge of the program and supporting the expansion of our community. We look forward to growing our community to include a much bigger neighborhood.