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Fire Prevention and Community Risk Reduction

Explore these free materials to help your fire department increase community awareness about fire safety, get fire prevention messages into news stories, and share information about fire and other safety issues that threaten lives in your community.

Join with your fellow safety communicators to speak with “one voice” on monthly fire and life safety themes. View the message calendar.

Create a Community Wildfire Protection Plan

Wildfires are becoming more extreme; larger, spread faster, and occur in areas that have never experienced fires. These fires create a cascading effects like damaged water supplies, infrastructure, economies, watersheds, and ecosystems.

Because of this, it is important to help your community prepare for a wildfire. One of the best ways to prepare is by creating a Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP).

Help protect communities in wildfire-prone areas.

  1. Create a collaborative local group representing all stakeholders.
  2. Identify the community's risks.
  3. Create a written assessment of risks using a Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP) or Natural Hazard Mitigation Plan.
  4. Identify actionable steps to reduce risks.
  5. Build partnerships to help the community with their action plan.
  6. Take action!
  7. Maintain the work and reevaluate as needed.
Creating a Community Wildfire Protection Plan guide

This guide will assist you in making a CWPP. The form-fillable templates in the guide allow you to create an action plan and document assets at risk, forest/landscape health issues, and key stakeholders.

Get the guide

Help your community to become fire adapted

firefighter talking with children
fire sprinkler and a smoke alarm
propane tanks outside at a store
outdoor dining bubbles on a city street
firefighters wearing SCBA
  • Education
  • Engineering
  • Enforcement
  • Economic incentives
  • Emergency response

Community risk reduction

A community risk reduction (CRR) program can help your department take what you already know and lower the risks within your area of operation. CRR uses a wide variety of tools to form a strategic and integrated program focused on reducing the occurrence and impact of local risks.

Learn about CRR

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There are dozens of ways you can use Fire Is Everyone's Fight to help teach people in your city or town to be safe from fire. Join the fight for a few ideas to get you started.