Susan Carlsen, resident lead, had this to share:
The new Crane Way Firewise neighborhood includes 48 homes – ALL of the homes on Crane Way and a handful of adjacent homes on Joaquin Miller Road. We are compact and well-defined, with Butters Canyon to the downhill side of us and Joaquin Miller Road and Park to the uphill side. The neighborhood turned its attention to fire safety when neighbor Dale Risden, long active with the Friends of Joaquin Miller Park, spoke of the great benefits of joining Firewise at a neighborhood meeting.
We were highly motivated by several factors:
some of the neighbors had lost standard home insurance coverage in recent months, and we were all rattled by what we saw in the small but close-by Keller Fire (October 2024) and the massive fires in Los Angeles (January 2025).
As we went through the preparations for joining Firewise,
Joelle Fraser was a wise guide and responsive partner. I think we were all amazed by the quality of the Firewise materials and the important stages of the membership process.
The neighborhood “walkthrough”
with representatives from the Oakland Fire Department, the Firewise Council, and another new Firewise neighborhood, was a great community event. It helped galvanize our efforts.
There really was a ripple effect from each step in the process:
we saw one another putting out more bags full of leaves, weeds and dead shrubs, beginning new rock gardens, hiring arborists to thin trees (including the tallest tree on the street, a majestic redwood), putting fire-resistant decks in place, cutting down dead and overgrown trees and shrubs.
We are holding our first expanded Firewise Committee meeting in June and will continue to make Firewise and fire safety a central part of our community. Thank you Firewise!
The (NFPA) Firewise USA® recognition program was designed to help residents learn about wildfire risks and provide a self-directed, collaborative framework for neighbors to work together to reduce these risks by engaging in fuel reduction and home hardening activities.
Oakland Firesafe Council is encouraging Oakland neighborhood groups to join the growing network of more than 1,500 Firewise USA® sites from across the nation by taking ownership in preparing and protecting their homes and communities against the threat of wildfire. LEARN MORE
