One of the best ways to deal with California’s current homeowners insurance problem (as evidenced by the cancellation letters many Oak Park residents have begun to receive), is to become a Firewise USA Community. Insurers recognize these community programs as well as work done on individual homes. You can go to our website at Firewise-Wildfire – Oak Park Fire Safe Council (opfsc.org) to understand how to become a Firewise USA community.
Here are our major activities and accomplishments in June:
Firewise
- The Ventura Regional Fire Safe Council (VRFSC) is providing $1,000 microgrants for Firewise-recognized communities to make structural and/or defensible space improvements. Oak Park currently has 3 of these communities.
- Country Glen HOA was awarded a $1,000 grant for defensible space improvements and has begun putting that award to work.
- Canyon Cove HOA was awarded a $1,500 grant for dryer vent replacement, and has also begun utilizing that award.
- Country Meadows HOA is modifying their microgrant award from the Ventura Regional Fire Safe Council (VRFSC) to include painting of curb addresses, publishing Ready-Set-Go one-pagers for residents, and providing a fire extinguisher for each home. This has been submitted for approval to VRFSC.
- Three communities had their risk assessments approved by Ventura County Fire Department: Morrison Sutton, Regency Chambord and Mae Boyer East (a neighborhood, not an HOA).
- Each of these communities is now working on its three-year plan. Once the plans are developed, they will be submitted along with a couple of other items to Cal Fire and NFPA for Firewise USA approval.
Assessments
- Five assessments were performed for homeowners, and another five are already scheduled for Oak Park in July.
Marketing
- We are working with Fire Station 36 and the County Supervisor’s office to host an event at the fire station in September. This would be a family event similar to last year’s successful event (several hundred people attended). This exciting event has already been approved by Ventura County Fire and the Supervisor’s office, and we are working on a date and logistics.
- Sent out the July newsletter
Grants
- No updates at this time.
Other
- The Center for Geospatial Science and Technology (CGST) has made some final requested changes to an interactive map that will be available on our public website. This map will identify homeowners’ defensible space that needs to be mitigated and will provide a measuring tool to identify the boundaries of the defensible space for which Rancho Simi is responsible. We will be sharing this with Rancho Simi as well. In addition, the CGST has provided us with .png and .pdf versions of static maps of the different areas of Oak Park. These will be made available on the website as well.
Please click here to set up a free Home Wildfire Assessment, and contact us on our website if you are interested in launching a Firewise program in your community.
