Leslie Louie, Estates Fountains FireWise Lead, had this to share about the experience:
The Estates Fountains neighbors have been organized as a community against crime and for emergency preparedness since 2006 to strengthen our neighborhood resilience and get to know our neighbors and neighborhood better. Located on the west side of Hwy 13, we are comprised of 106 households including Estates from La Salle on the south proceeding north half way to Johnston, and all of Bullard and McAndrew. Several of us had participated in Oakland’s CORE program, and we had run emergency preparedness drills following what we learned. We maintain a community emergency supply shed and conduct an annual inventory to refresh supplies and remind ourselves of what is needed during a disaster, such as an earthquake. We’ve participated in National Night Out ever since Oakland began celebrating it.
More recently, we have been concerned about wildfires and the ability to insure our homes, with companies canceling policies or refusing to insure new homeowners moving into the neighborhood.
With the help of Joelle Fraser from the Oakland FireSafe Council, we took the necessary steps to apply for FireWise designation. I reached out through our existing listserv to form a leadership committee for our neighborhood and 7 people enthusiastically volunteered! We sent out information about FireWise and Google forms surveys for people to perform a self-assessment of their own homes along with estimates of time and money spent on home hardening and wildfire mitigation projects. During our Fall neighborhood food drive, we had information about FireWise and encouraged neighbors to complete the forms for our application.
Joelle helped us create a 3-year action plan in which we decided to focus on further hardening our homes, clearing flammable debris and vegetation on our properties, continuing our emergency preparedness activities and education. OFD inspector Adam Ball drove through the neighborhood with us to confirm our self-assessment and wrote a letter to support our application. The assessment and application process took about 4 months to complete and another 2 months to get approval, including a cycle of review and revision. As of April 2024, Estates Fountains is a FireWise Designated Community!
Since receiving our certificate, several neighbors have sent it to their homeowner’s insurance companies and received small discounts or rebates, and even been reinstated after being told they would be canceled.
This is great news for our neighborhood, which has the highest risk designation for wildfires.
In July, we are having a neighborhood work day to help each other clean gutters and install 1/8-inch mesh on their vents. Some of the households have joined together to hire a hillside brush clearance company that will give a neighborhood discount for work done on adjoining properties on the same day. The benefits of being a FireWise Community are more than just wildfire mitigation. We are becoming closer as a neighborhood, getting to know new neighbors and renewing relationships with old neighbors. In addition to increasing neighborhood fire safety, this is the best crime prevention step we could take.
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