RED FLAG WATCH from 11 pm Sunday through 5 pm Tuesday. Gusty offshore winds & drying conditions. Walk around your house to ensure it still complies with defensible space standards. Pack your go bag. Go to www.oaklandcpandr.org for more tips.
Oakland Firesafe Council

Preparedness Education and Materials

A disaster can strike at any time without warning.
How prepared are you?

Oakland Firesafe Council provides awareness, resources, and support to help increase the community preparedness level and to improve disaster response capabilities for residents of Oakland (and beyond).

When a disaster such as a major earthquake, wildfire or tsunami/flood strikes, it is at that moment too late to get prepared. Therefore, it is highly recommended for everyone to at least take the top 5 most important actions to be better prepared now, before it’s too late. These actions are easy, straight-forward and don’t take much time.


TOP 5 MOST IMPORTANT ACTIONS TO TAKE

  1. Register for AC Alert and learn about other emergency alerts and notifications
  2. Make your family emergency plan
  3. Know Your (Zonehaven) Zone and learn about emergency evacuations
  4. Build your Go-Bags/Stay Box with some basic supplies
  5. Be ready to help your family, friends, and your community – including children and older adults (don’t forget pets)

Use this Preparedness Actions Checklist to mark your progress. Take these actions one step at a time and remember that each step you take to prepare for an emergency, the better off you are than before!


ADDITIONAL ACTIONS

  • Review all of our GUIDES which include topics such as home hardening for earthquake/wildfire, power shutoffs, insurance, Firewise USA®, emergency communications, and much more.
  • Request a free 1-hour Personal Emergency Preparedness workshop (in-person or Zoom) for your neighborhood, workplace, community group, or other organization.

TRAINING & VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES WITH THE CITY OF OAKLAND/EMSD

Learn much more about preparing for, responding to and recovering from a disaster by taking Oakland’s FEMA CERT curriculum. CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) training covers topics not included in PEP such as disaster medical operations and light search and rescue.

The Communities of Oakland Respond to Emergencies (CORE) program is how the Oakland Emergency Services Management Division (EMSD) recruits and develops Disaster Service Worker Volunteers (DSW-V) who are interested in joining City Staff in support of an emergency response.


We hope this information is a stepping stone for you to want to learn all you can about being as prepared as possible for a wildfire, earthquake, tsunami/flood or other emergency. We recommend that you also review other excellent preparedness and response information from sources including Ready.govPG&EListos California, the American Red Cross and The Oaklandside, among others.

The Guides below will help you better prepare for and respond to a disaster – click to view or download

PEP Workshop

Oakland Firesafe Council (OFSC) partners with Oakland Fire Department’s Emergency Management Services Division (EMSD) and its CORE program to offer a free ~1 hour Personal Emergency Preparedness (PEP) workshop, either in-person or online via Zoom.

The PEP workshop covers the most important steps one should take to be better prepared for a disaster such as a wildfire, earthquake or tsunami/flood, followed by actions to respond to and recover from the disaster. EMSD’s in-person PEP workshop may also include emergency first aid and fire extinguisher demonstrations.

WEP Workshop

The similar Wildfire and Emergency Preparedness (WEP) workshop is offered by OFSC and covers personal preparedness steps plus home hardening for wildfire, home ignition zones/ember protection, defensible space, Red Flag Warnings, firescaping and the importance of working as a community towards the common goal of wildfire protection. The free ~1 hour WEP workshop can be provided in-person or online via Zoom.


Neighborhoods, community groups, businesses, and other organizations are all invited to sign up for the free PEP or WEP workshop.



  • The Oakland Firesafe Council GUIDES are great companion pieces for more information on topics related to disaster preparedness and response.
  • A downloadable PDF template of the Oakland Firesafe Council PEP workshop presentation is HERE
  • External links noted in the PEP and WEP workshops are HERE

Listos California’s statewide campaign is focused directly on engaging and readying diverse and vulnerable populations for disasters (wildfires, earthquakes, floods, etc.) by providing resources that are accessible, in-language and culturally competent.

With 100+ resources in more than 20 languages, we highly recommend taking a look at their outstanding content starting with these:

ADDITIONAL