NFPA’s Firewise USA® program teaches how to adapt to living with wildfire and encourages neighbors to work together to take action to prevent losses.
Sponsored by the National Fire Protection Association, the Firewise USA® Recognition Program is aimed at small communities, community associations, and master planned communities. The goal is to assess the wildfire risk and create a network of cooperating homeowners and organizations within the community and the community’s fire department.
Texas is home to over 100 Firewise USA® sites.
Being recognized as a Firewise USA® Site requires the community to have an on-going commitment toward mitigating wildfire hazards.
Become a nationally recognized site
Wildfire risk assessment
Enlist a WUI Coordinator to complete a wildfire risk assessment and create a plan that identifies agreed-upon achievable solutions to be implemented by the community.
Board/committee
Form a board/committee of residents and other stakeholders to develop a multi-year action plan based on the assessment. The board oversees the annual renewal requirements.
Action plan
Action plans are a prioritized list of risk reduction projects developed by the board/committee from the risk assessment to help reduce wildfire risk.
Educational outreach
Each participating site is required to have a minimum of one wildfire risk reduction education event, or related activity annually.
Wildfire risk reduction investment
At a minimum, each site is required to invest the equivalent of one volunteer hour per dwelling unit in risk reduction actions annually.
Application
Applicants begin the overall process by creating a site profile through the Firewise website. The application is eligible for submission when the overall criteria is completed.
Additional requirements from Texas A&M Forest Service
Provide a boundary map of the site. We will convert to a PDF format and also create GIS Shape files.
Provide name and contact information for the Fire Department that provides protection for the site.