Quincy, Mass. — Many communities face the risk of losing homes and resources to wildfire. To combat this risk, Fire Corps and Firewise Communities partnered to develop a Firewise toolkit, a compilation of resources to help residents of fire-prone areas decrease their risk of loss due to wildfires.
The toolkit, Getting Started with Firewise, provides information about building and maintaining communities that are compatible with nature and safer from wildfire. Fire Corps members — volunteers who assist fire departments across the nation with non-emergency activities — can use the guide to help educate residents about protecting property and natural resources from the threat of wildland fires.
“Fire Corps volunteers have a unique opportunity to create Firewise Communities using the information in this toolkit to reach out to residents,” said James Smalley, manager of the national Firewise Communities program. “We are proud to be partners in promoting community wildfire safety and preparedness.”
“With the increasing demands faced by firefighters to respond to issues such as global terrorism, hazardous materials threats, and wildland fires, community members need to do their part to help protect their neighbors,” said Melissa Speed, Director of Fire Corps. “The Firewise toolkit allows Fire Corps members to educate the community on how to protect their homes and neighborhoods from wildfires. This allows the firefighters to focus on training and responding to emergencies.”
The toolkit contains brochures, booklets, DVDs, and other materials that can be used for community outreach efforts on wildfire safety. It also includes information on how to use the materials and how to order additional copies of the materials.
The toolkit can be ordered free-of-charge from the Fire Corps national office at 1-888-FC-INFO1 (324-6361) or info@firecorps.org.
Fire Corps is a grassroots effort under Citizen Corps to connect resource-constrained fire and EMS departments with community members to assist in non-emergency tasks. Fire Corps is administered on a national level by the National Volunteer Fire Council. For more information, visit www.firecorps.org.
Firewise Communities is a public-private cooperative program with the National Fire Protection Association, the National Wildfire Coordinating Group, the National Fire Plan, and U.S. Forest Service and Department of Interior. For more information, visit www.firewise.org.