Recognized Firewise USA® communities get Insurance Discounts. In 2022, the California Department of Insurance enacted “Safer from Wildfires,” requiring insurance companies to recognize Firewise USA® designated communities by providing discounts to property…
On October 26, 2026, the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS) and CalChiefs Fire Marshal Section held a live side-by-side burn demonstration to show how proven home and…
A firefighting plane dumps water on the Palisades fire on Jan. 7, 2025. Photo courtesy: Brian van den Burg/Los Angeles Times A sweeping new review of the January 2025 Los…
Your Firewise Community Needs You! Every year Residents in Firewise USA® Communities are required to submit a certain amount of “Firewise activities” to maintain their “In Good Standing” status. Each…
Wildfire risk keeps growing, and so do home insurance costs. Many homeowners are asking how to make their homes safer, and what it will cost. Upfront costs for wildfire-resistant retrofits…
Great news: Governor Newsom has signed the first-in-the-nation standards for testing and remediating hazardous wildfire smoke contamination for future fires and requires insurers to cover qualifying smoke damage, testing, remediation,…
Make September the Month You Get Your Mitigation Work Done. September marks Wildfire Prevention Month, positioned at the point in the calendar when much of the western United States is…
We strongly advise all residents to download and use the Watch Duty App. Watch Duty, the wildfire tracking and alert app, marks five years of operation this year, having launched…
CA Board of Forestry and Fire Protection Approves First-in-the-Nation Zone 0 Regulations. Thank you to the CA Board of Forestry and Fire Protection. They have worked tirelessly to complete these…
Wildfires aren’t just a California problem. They’re burning on four continents at once, and the numbers this week are staggering. Here’s where things stand as of July 30, 2026. The…
Home Hardening Benefits are driving a whole new wave of Home Wildfire Protection Products. As wildfire seasons grow longer and more intense, so has the market for products designed to…
Momentum is building to solve home insurance crisis. California lawmakers are finally doing something about the insurance mess wildfire survivors have been dealing with since the LA fires wiped out…
Wildfire is shaping the CA Insurance Market. Stanford University Climate and Energy Policy Program has released a white paper that looks at the current home insurance crisis with origins like…
If huge organizations can’t control a wildfire, how can I control a wildfire? It’s not a matter of controlling a wildfire, it’s a matter of changing the conditions of the…
Finally, good news about home insurance. Zurich US has submitted a commercial property insurance rate filing under California’s Sustainable Insurance Strategy. It is one of the first large commercial carriers to join the…
Standing-room-only workshop highlighted the urgent need for community action.Since the event three weeks ago, we have experienced two local wildfires. Six Educational Panels Promoted Wildfire Mitigation Education On May 9th,…
If you missed the April 23, 2026, Zone Zero Board of Forestry and Fire Protection update, Yana Valachovic, UC ANR Fire Network – Community Resiliency and Built Environment, gives us…
Wildfire mitigation is not only about home hardening and defensible space. There are many other items and preparations that should be in place before the event of a wildfire. Important…
In trying to reflect on the Simi Valley Sandy Fire, we could think of nothing better than to publish, with permission, a letter sent to us by Debbie Bernard, the…
Assistant Chief Drew Smith, LA County Fire Dept., and Assistant Chief Brad Weisshaupt, Forestry, LA County Fire Dept., explained the process of Prescribed Burns. Definition: A Prescribed Burn is a low…
California Zone 0 Draft Regulations – Summary (April 2026) On Thursday, April 23, 2026, the Board of Forestry and Fire Protection, held a Zone 0 Regulatory Advisory Committee Meeting at…
The True Cost of Rebuilding: Why Mitigation Is the Only Affordable Option Let’s do the math that the real estate industry, the development industry, and frankly, most of local government…
Zone 0 Public Meeting that we encourage you to attend. If you have an opinion or want the facts on Zone 0, this is your opportunity. Register to join the…
This is a video worth watching! Boulder has a history of wildfires, the most destructive of which was the Marshall Fire. The Marshall Fire was a wildfire and urban conflagration that started on December…
PRESS RELEASE RANCHO SIMI RECREATION AND PARK DISTRICT FIRST PHASE OF MEDEA CREEK MAINTENANCE PROJECT COMMENCES The Rancho Simi Recreation and Park District (RSRPD) is pleased to announce that the first…
A year ago, most of us downloaded an App we had never heard of before. We instantly believed and trusted the information on the App. Who are they, and how…
Something every property owner needs to understand… The Backward Pricing Problem. If your insurance premiums have doubled, this explains why and what to do about it. Most property owners think…
National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS) In response to the growing threat of wildland fires to local communities, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)’s National Environmental Satellite,…
Vegetation in Zone Zero Amplifies Damage to Structures. In a recent Virtual Workshop, United Policyholders hosted Steven Hawks, Senior Director for Wildfire at the Insurance Institute for Business & Home…
2025 was a very successful year for the Oak Park Fire Safe Council The following are just some of our accomplishments: As of December 2025, the Oak Park Fire Safe…
California’s recent regulations. This PDF document by Carolyn Kousky and Xuesong You, from Insurance for Good (insuranceforgood.org), provides a comprehensive breakdown of California’s recent wildfire insurance-related regulations, incentives, and discounts.…
Make sure your contractors and landscapers review this handbook BEFORE working on your home. This WUI Virtual Handbook for Fire Risk Assessments and Mitigation, from the Society of Fire Protection of…
The Goats Were Back! Your Oak Park Fire Safe Council represented well at the Ventura County Supervisor’s Office yearly community event at Fire Station 36 on October 25th. The goats…
2025’s disaster losses hit $80 billion in just 6 months. That’s double the 10-year average. Here’s what changed: 2001: The worst terrorist attack in US history. Within 2 months, America…
A wide range of bills now protect and assist residents’ recovery. Governor Newsom signed a bipartisan package of bills to aid in the rebuilding and recovery efforts in Los Angeles…
Fire Station 36 Open House Saturday, October 25th, 10 am – 3 pm Fall is upon us and with it, fire season becomes top of mind. It’s a great time to be…
Home hardening alone raised survival to 25%. Hardening and clearing defensible space closest to the home up to 5 feet improved survivability to 40%. CBS News By: Kenny Choi CBS…
By: Todd LandoBattalion Chief, Wildfire Hazard Mitigation Specialist – Central Marin Fire Department September 25, 2025 The debate around California’s Zone Zero regulation has reached a critical point. What began…
This homeowner created a five foot Zone 0 buffer using smart landscaping and noncombustible materials—and they still have a yard with grass, trees, and flowers spaced out with nothing flammable…
As of July 1, 2021, California Assembly Bill 38 (AB 38) states that the seller of a residential property located in specified zones must submit documentation of compliance with locally adopted…
September is National Preparedness Month. It’s an annual observance sponsored by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to remind everyone to prepare for emergencies and disasters. For years, we have been…
Education=Action. Your Oak Park Fire Safe Council continues to work toward educating our community on how best to prepare for wildfires and protect our homes. Thank you to all of you…
Will your trash cans burn? Watch the video to see if your guess is correct. Trash cans should always be moved at least 5 feet away from the house and…
This home received a Wildfire Prepared Home Designation Certificate. When Janet Jackson moved to Oak Park from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1998, she unwittingly began the process of hardening her home…
What is Defensible Space? CAL FIRE defines Defensible Space as the buffer between your structure and the surrounding area. Adequate defensible space acts as a barrier to slow or halt…
One home burned and the other did not In a recent article by LA Times, staff writer Jack Flemming, writes about a home hardening demonstration put on by the Insurance…
In a landmark decision, judge rules California FAIR Plan’s smoke-damage policy is illegal. A Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge said Tuesday, June 24, 2025, that the California FAIR Plan Assn.’s policy…
IS YOUR HOME FIRE SAFE? Find out with a FREE assessment. With wildfires seemingly a year-round reality in California, staving off devastation with home hardening strategies has become as common…
Board Updates – Chipper Day, Friday May 30th We hope everyone had a safe and enjoyable Memorial Day weekend. As we finish out National Wildfire Awareness Month, we look ahead…
“In both the Eaton and Palisades Fires, I did not see many homesthat survived without evidence of some type of defensive action.” Lessons from the 2025 Los Angeles Wildfires By…
The Resource Conservation District of the Santa Monica Mountains Community Resilience team, with a grant from CAL FIRE, created a series of videos to help communities become more wildfire-resilient. The…
May is National Wildfire Awareness month!! It’s time to start focusing on the upcoming fire season (it’s always fire season) and ways you can protect your home and our community!…
May is National Wildfire Awareness Month. It’s a time to focus on prevention and preparedness for wildfires, especially as warmer weather and drying vegetation increase the risk of wildfires. The…
Resource Conservation District of Santa Monica Mountains is hosting a Community Wildfire Mitigation Training event at the Calabasas Community Center. Please Join Wildfire Expert Instructor Pat Durland at a FREE…
Your Oak Park Fire Safe Council has many exciting announcements this month! We are very fortunate to have secured a partnership with the Center for Geospatial Science and Technology from California…
The Center for Geospatial Science and Technology (CGST) at California State University, Northridge, is an interdisciplinary research center dedicated to advancing the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for real-world problem-solving,…
On March 24, 2025, CAL FIRE released its revised Fire Hazard Severity Zone for your area. This interactive map lets you see where your home is located on the map.…
John Faucher (Chairman), and Ed Reiner (Operations) of the Oak Park Fire Safe Council attended a meeting of the Oak Park Municipal Advisory Committee (MAC) on Thursday evening, 2/27/2025. John…
Message From the Oak Park Fire Safe Council While we continue to hold those who suffered a devastating loss during the horrific January fires in our thoughts, we remain diligent in creating…
Important information if your home is in a trust Putting your home into a Revocable Trust is an estate planning best practice. One of the many challenges in the spotlight…
California Governor Gavin Newsom, right, surveys damage in Pacific Palisades with CalFire’s Nick Schuler during the Palisades Fire on Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2025, in Pacific Palisades, CA. (Photo by Jeff…
Welcome to the Mae Boyar East Firewise Community! If your house is within this area, congratulations! You are now within the Mae Boyar East Firewise Community, certified by the National…
Message From the Oak Park Fire Safe Council As we reflect on the recent devastation that swept through Los Angeles and Ventura County cities and towns, it’s important to remember…
Photo: Mario Tama/Getty ImagesWhy do some homes survive wildfires? Like many Californians, I became familiar with the term “home hardening” last year, when insurance companies had finally come to grips…
In this year-end edition of the Oak Park Fire Safe Council newsletter, we thought it would be helpful for one of our very own OPFSC board members to share his…
The following are our accomplishments in 2024, with the help of many partners and community residents. Thanks to all of you Oak Park residents who are making our community safer. Firewise…
On October 5 we hosted, along with the Ventura County Supervisor and the Ventura County Fire Department, an open house at Fire Station 36. This was a really fun family…
Before the rainy season is wildfire season. The Oak Park Fire Safe Council wants you to do some basic things to your home that can make a difference in keeping…
Here are our major activities and accomplishments in October: Firewise Morrison Sutton and Regency Chambord are the most recent HOAs to receive Firewise USA recognition. This makes five Oak Park…
Come out and have some fun! The ice cream truck will be there between Noon and 2 pm. Meet your elected official, fire personnel and more! Share concerns about your…
DSpace is not Deep Space – DSpace means defensible space! Embers, not the main firefront, are the leading cause of home ignitions during a wildfire. The DSpace around your home offers you…
This month our focus is the October 5th Open House at Firestation #36 from 11-3pm. Here are our major activities and accomplishments in September: Firewise Vents have been ordered pursuant…
We have been awarded an exciting new grant to mitigate the brush and tree fire danger in the Lindero and Medea Creek communities, as we continue to move forward with…
The Oak Park Fire Safe Council has just received a $623,000 grant from Cal Fire that provides funding to reduce the fire hazard along Medea and Lindero Creeks in Oak…
Oak Park has a number of Firewise USA® recognized communities. California has enacted “Safer from Wildfires” requiring insurance companies to recognize Firewise USA® designated communities by providing discounts to property…
Oak Park Fire Safe Council continues to move forward with Firewise communities. We are also putting a strong focus on how Firewise communities can help at-risk residents and are beginning…
Special assistance for those who need it during evacuation Are you an “at-risk resident,” disabled or elderly, who may need assistance in the event of a wildfire? The Oak Park…
Southern California Edison to pay the federal government and additional $80 million for expenses related to the 2017 Thomas Fire Southern California Edison has agreed to pay the federal government…
(Above) The Wildfire Disaster Sequence: severe wildfire potential and extreme conditions will quickly overwhelm wildfire suppression resources. Vulnerable structures will ignite and lead to an urban conflagration and fire disaster.…
Why do you want your community to be a Firewise USA community? You have seen in our newsletters much discussion about becoming Firewise recognized. So, what are the benefits to…
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…
We have had many residents share with us their stories of insurance cancellation letters. This problem is very real right now, and engaging us for a free Home Wildfire Assessment…
Those who drive on Lindero Canyon Road north of Thousand Oaks Blvd. have been exposed to some construction over the past year. While this has been inconvenient at times, the…
Insurance companies are moving to a fire prevention model, which puts the onus on homeowners to improve their properties and is leading to many insurance cancellation letters. We have three…
April was another big month for us as our second and third HOAs, Canyon Cove and Country Meadows, received Firewise USA recognition. That new recognition leads off the following list…
On April 4th, 2024, the CA Department of Insurance held a webinar, “Wildfire and Disaster Insurance Online Town Hall,” hosted by Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara, Assemblymember Jacqui Irwin, and the…
The Woolsey Fire, which ravaged parts of Ventura and Los Angeles Counties in November, 2018, left a lasting impact on Oak Park and surrounding communities. Here are some of its…
March was a huge month for us as our first HOA, Country Glen, received Firewise USA recognition. There was a lot more, including the following major activities and accomplishments in…
Many homeowners in our community have received letters from their insurance companies either canceling their insurance or giving them a short amount of time to address a list of wildfire-related…
Congratulations to Oak Park’s first Firewise USA community. In an article in last month’s newsletter, we discussed the National Fire Protection Association’s (NFPA) Firewise Program, which was specifically developed to…
February’s council agenda focused on further developing the projects identified in our January Strategic Planning Session, including the following major activities: We held a first annual Firewise meeting for three…
CDI Guidelines Require Insurers to Reward Firewise homeowners for wildfire preparation. The following excerpt from California Department of Insurance regulations became effective on October 14, 2022, dictating that insurers are…
OAK PARK COMMUNITY EMERGENCY RESPONSE TEAM TRAINING WHAT: CERT In-Person Course – Oak Park WHEN: Monday nights from 6:30 pm to 9:30 pmStart Date: April 08, 2024End Date: May 13, 2024…
The following article was contributed by Mike Thayer, CWMS, Property Risk Specialist for Allied Disaster Defense & Restoration, which gives us a unique perspective of how we got into the current home insurance…
December/January was again a busy time for the Oak Park Fire Safe Council (OPFSC). This article will be a mixture of a 2023 year-end review, and share a bit of…
The Rancho Simi Recreation and Park District (RSRPD) was just awarded a grant by the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy to enhance the defensible space along Medea Creek. These open-space riparian…
October was again a busy time for the Oak Park Fire Safe Council (OPFSC). We continue the Firewise process with several HOAs, and we continue to do more and more…
Fire season is upon us (really, when isn’t it!) So, we thought we would provide a few quick and easy actions that you can take to better prepare your home…
The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) developed the Firewise program specifically to protect communities from wildfire. The program improves the wildfire resiliency of the community and the individual homes and…
The California Fire Safe Council (CFSC) plays an important role in improving wildfire resiliency in California and more specifically in Oak Park. Several of the grants that the Oak Park…
