Home Assessments

The Wildfire Prepared Home Assessment Program promotes wildfire awareness, education, and action for residents of Elk Creek, Inter-Canyon, Evergreen, and Genesee Fire Protection Districts. Through the program, local residents can request a professional evaluation of the exterior of their home and surrounding property to determine their susceptibility to wildfire and actions that can make their home more defensible. Click on the logo to learn more about this exciting program.

Due to the specialized service provided through this program, there is a $100 charge for a home assessment that will be billed to you one to two days before your scheduled assessment.

Register Here

The wildland-urban interface (WUI) can be found anywhere wildland fire can move from natural vegetation to the built environment. All Elk Creek and Inter-Canyon residents can find them selves in one of the categories found on the diagram here.

It is worth noting that while a less vegetated area, such as the Ember Zone, may correlate to reduced wildfire risk, many of the destructive wildfires across the country have been in significantly developed ares.

To properly reduce the risk of wildfire in each area across the continuum, mitigation requirements and techniques can drastically differ. Having a Wildfire Prepared assessment provides the expertise and custom work plan to reduce your wildfire risk.

Working with your neighbors

Homes in the WUI are at high risk for wildfires through radiant heat, surface fires, and embers. The Home Ignition Zone (HIZ) is a framework for addressing these risks and includes three Zones:

• Immediate Zone - includes the home itself plus outwards of five feet
• Intermediate Zone - five to 30 feet from the house
• Extended Zone – 30 to 100 feet from the house, possibly farther on steep slopes.

In many of our communities, homes are located on smaller lots with HIZs that overlap with neighboring properties, and this can prevent full HIZ mitigation. In these situations, it is necessary to work with your neighbors to reduce the risk of wildfire to your own home. A Wildfire Prepared representative can help provide the information you and your neighbors need to reduce the risk of fire transferring from one home to another.

Extending Defensible Space Zones

Almost every community in the foothills has significant terrain with the potential to increase fire behavior that can impact structures during an event. In order to reduce the expected fire intensity around homes and structures, defensible space zones may need to be extended, as this diagram shows.

All visuals provided here were developed through the Community Planning Assistance for Wildfire program. Permission for use was provided by Wildfire Planning International.