NFPA Journal - July/August 2019 - 20

WILDFIRE

STRIVING FOR
EXCELLENCE

NEW FIREWISE PILOT PROGRAM TESTS HOW FAR COMMUNITIES
CAN GO TO PROTECT THEMSELVES FROM WILDFIRE
By Angelo Verzoni
here are more than
1,500 communities
throughout the United
States that participate in
NFPA's flagship wildfire
prevention program, Firewise USA®.
While participation in that program
alone demonstrates a commitment
to taking steps to preventing life and
property loss in wildfires, staffers in
NFPA's Wildfire Division recently began
wondering if some communities could
go even further in their efforts to protect themselves.
"We wanted to see if some communities wanted to try to take this to the
next level," said Tom Welle, manager of
the Wildfire Division's Denver office.

T

20 | NFPA JOURNAL * J U L Y /A U G U S T 2 0 1 9

Earlier this year, the Wildfire Division launched a new Firewise pilot
program called Sites of Excellence. The
program includes seven communities in
seven states that will be monitored over
the course of the next two years to see
if they can accomplish a set of predetermined, ambitious goals, and if it makes
sense to apply those goals to the larger
Firewise program.
The impetus for the program, Welle
explained in May, was the fact that
despite efforts from programs like
Firewise, the US has continued to experience large-scale property loss in the
country's biggest wildland blazes. In
California last year, for example, the
Camp Fire, which was the deadliest

and most destructive fire in
the state's history, destroyed
some 19,000 structures,
mostly homes. "The bottom
line is what we're seeing
with these large-loss fires is
that we're just not getting
enough done," Welle said.
"Residents aren't getting
enough done, especially in
the home ignition zone."
The home ignition
zone-the area including
home structures and their
surroundings, which when
improperly managed provide
an opportunity for embers
from a wildfire to ignite the
home-is the focus for the
Sites of Excellence program.
In each community, Welle
said, up to 100 homes will
be selected with the goal of
creating ideal wildfire prevention conditions on and
within 30 feet of every home.
Activities to accomplish this could
include clearing vegetation around the
home, replacing combustible wooden
roofing with noncombustible materials,
and replacing mulch with rocks.
The program participants include
communities in Arizona, Colorado,
Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, and
Wisconsin.
In a recent interview with Megan
Fitzgerald-McGowan, who along with
Welle is running the Sites of Excellence program, Rick Best, the leader of
the pilot site in Texas, explained why
his community, known as 7-R Ranch,
wanted to participate in the program.
"We want to better understand the
threats from the canyons, look at the
homes and their setbacks from the
edge, and what work has been done
in the home ignition zone," Best said,
according to a blog posted by Fitzgerald-McGowan in May. "The Sites of
Excellence program gives us an opportunity to systematically assess each
home and communicate the results to
each homeowner. I believe it will help
us get to the next level of participation
in our community."
Read more on the Fire Break blog at
community.nfpa.org.

MEGAN FITZGERALD-McGOWAN

Dispatches
http://community.nfpa.org
NFPA Journal - July/August 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of NFPA Journal - July/August 2019
