Happy Wednesday fireshed community!
It’s March, and with the warmer weather comes windy and dry conditions that can lead to an early fire season. In Northern New Mexico, some fire restrictions have already been put in place which is a good reminder that wildfire preparedness is year-round. Now is a great time of year to take care of some things around your home and property to prepare for wildfire season, check out the resources below to learn how!
This Wildfire Wednesday features information on:
Home Hazard Assessment Guide & Worksheet
Firewise USA Community Wildfire Risk Assessment Tutorial
"How To Prepare for Wildfire Season in New Mexico 2022“ Webinar Series
Home Ignition Zone Webinar
Best,
Liz
Home Hazard Assessment Guide & Worksheet
The prospect of preparing your home for fire season can seem overwhelming, since planning for any disaster means imaging the worst. So, to get started the best thing to do is to create a plan and then begin with the easiest tasks. To assist in making a plan we’d like to present the Home Hazard Assessment Guide. With this guide and the accompanying worksheet you can assess the areas of your home that could use improvement and then keep track as you work to improve them. This short guide covers all the areas that you might be concerned about that might cause your home to ignite. This guide provides homeowners with tools to assess your home's wildfire risk and prioritizes actions you can take to reduce that risk. The assessment worksheet included with this guide is intended to help you understand your risk and where vulnerabilities on your property may lie. Every home is different in terms of wildfire risk and hazards. The goal for this worksheet is not to get a hazard rating of zero, but simply to address certain vulnerabilities that present a wildfire risk to your home. Where you choose to reduce risk on your property is specific to your property's unique features. Start by inquiring with your local fire department about wildfire risk in your area. Your community may have a Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP) which will provide you with a CWPP ranking and recommendations for reducing risk in your community.
Firewise USA Community Wildfire Risk Assessment Tutorial
The Community Wildfire Risk Assessment Tutorial from Firewise provides an overview of the wildfire risk assessment process. You will learn how to evaluate your community’s strengths and vulnerabilities to wildfire as well as use that knowledge to inform your assessment.
Upon completion of this tutorial, you should be able to:
Identify environmental features that impact ignition resistance in a wildfire
Using environmental features observations, record findings in the Firewise USA® Community Wildfire Risk Assessment template, and
Use recorded findings to draft a multi-year action plan to reduce site risk from wildfire
How To Prepare for Wildfire Season in New Mexico 2022 Webinar Series
Each Thursday in March NMSU Extension Forest and Fire Specialist Doug Cram is presenting the “Learning to Live with Fire: How to Prepare for Wildfire Season in New Mexico 2022” Free Extension Webinar Series.
Schedule:
March 3rd: Wildfire! You have 5 minutes to evacuate. What should I do?
March 10th: Proactive steps for individual and family preparedness.
March 17th: Steps to safeguard your home, yard, and neighborhood.
March 24th: Farm and ranch considerations
March 31st: Post-fire response.
Home Ignition Zone Webinar
In this 60 minute webinar, Megan Fitzgerald-McGowan of the National Fire Protection Association will show you how to prepare your home for fire season. Research has shown that there are simple and easy actions you can take in the areas closest to your home to drastically lessen the chances of it catching fire in a wildfire. Tune-in to learn about the Home Ignition Zones and find out what you can do! Register now to attend the webinar via Zoom, or tune in on the FACNM Facebook live page.