March Meeting Recap
| Thanks to the 55 people who attended our Firewise meeting. Regardless of whether you were able to attend or not, here’s a recap of the most important things you can do now. 1. Contact Your Insurance Company. Let them know that we are now a certified Firewise community and see if you qualify for an insurance discount. They might need to see the map of our community and the certificate that recognizes our community (both distributed in the packet you received at the meeting). 2. Create an Ember Resistant Zone. Two of the most important things you can do now to keep your home safe from embers (the most likely cause of a house fire) are to: Make Zone 0—basically, 0-5 feet around the perimeter of your house—ember-resistant. The Guide for Creating Defensible Space (in your info packet) offers great suggestions for establishing this key zone. Removing combustibles (e.g., firewood, propane, mulch, wood chips, leaves, dead grass) is key. Starting on one side of your house might be a good place to begin this process. As a good example of defensible space, please look at our neighbor Jim’s house at 1017 Las Canoas Ln. Install ember-resistant vents or retrofit those you already have (with a 1/16” gauge mesh screen) so that embers cannot get into your house and burn it down. Ventilation companies are a good place to start evaluating your vents. 3. Do What Makes Sense for Your Property. It’s entirely up to you to decide what you want to do to protect your property. Hopefully, the materials in the packet (particularly Handouts C and E and the Guide for Creating Defensible Space) will give you some useful ideas. Consider contacting Gustavo Agregdano (gagredano@sbfiresafecouncil.org) to set up a personal home evaluation. He offers amazing suggestions specific to your home. 4. Report Your Firewise Activities. To maintain our good standing as a FireSafe Community, we all must report at least once a year on the money/time we have spent on Firewise activities. Handout C gives a massive list of things that “count.” If you’ve had people trim trees or do yardwork this year, definitely report what you’ve spent so far. To report, just click here and choose the community: Las Canoas, Foothill, and Tierra Cielo Lanes. Bookmark this link. You can always find the reporting link under Resources on our website. 5. Stay in the Loop During a Fire: If you haven’t done so already, download the apps on Handout F. Join our WhatsApp community to stay in the loop for fire emergencies/evacuation in our neighborhood. Get Watch Duty, which provides real-time information about wildfire and firefighting efforts nearby https://app.watchduty.org/ Sign up for ReadySBC Alerts, which provides notifications regarding safety and evacuations in Santa Barbara County: https://www.readysbc.org/176/Emergency If you need help with anything, contact us at info@sbfiresafelanes.org. Debbie MacInnis, Allen Weiss, Paula Waldman – Las Canoas Ln |