Desert Region Fire Safe offers free fire assessment for your home to prevent wildfire spread

Desert Region Fire Safe is offering free fire assessment to help ensure your property is a defensible space against wildland fire, where you can learn how to reduce wildfire risks, protect your property, and keep your family safe.

Desert Region Fire Safe wants your home’s property to be a defensible space, which is a buffer zone created by removing flammable vegetation and materials around the outside of your home. Required by state and local regulations, creating a defensible space will reduce risks of home ignition while providing a safe area for firefighters to work by clearing dead plants and junk, trimming trees and vegetation, and reassessing that vegetation is spaced out appropriately. 

Home hardening is another method suggested by the organization and is achieved by strengthening your home using fire-resistant building materials and design techniques on your roof, vents, windows, siding, decks, and fences. 

Desert Region Fire Safe is helping promote “Firewise USA,” a national program encouraging whole neighborhoods and communities to take proactive collective measures in wildfire safety. Benefits to achieving Firewise status include enhanced property protection, potential home insurance discounts, access to grants and funding, and strengthened community collaboration.

To set up a free fire assessment on your property, contact Desert Region Fire Safe at www.desertfire.org, call 760-853-0220, or email direct: hello@hdeaa.org.

Gabriel Hart

Gabriel Hart is an author and journalist from Morongo Valley, CA. He was a finalist for the 2024 Golden Mic Awards for his continuous reporting on the Morongo Valley Community Services District. His punk-noir novel On High at Red Tide is out now from Pig Roast Publishing, and he's the editor-in-chief/publisher of Beyond the Last Estate, a print-only magazine featuring "creative reporting on contemporary literature."