Links to sites providing guidance to homeowners in fire prone landscapes

Information from forwarded by Chris Pasley, UEE, Platte County.  Compiled by Ken Tremblay, CSU Extension

Is your home protected from wildfire disaster? A homeowner's guide to wildfire retrofit" from the Institute for Business and Home Safety (www.ibhs.org). This 20 page publication considers risk factors, landscaping and building materials, and includes a wildfire protection checklist. For business owners, the site contains "Open for business" that includes developing a strategic plan for wildfires and a number of checklists. There is also "Rebuild the right way after wildfires."

"How to make your home fire safe" from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (www.fire.ca.gov) is a two pager with a checklist for inside and outside the home.

"Making your home firewise" (www.firewise.org) has suggestions for fireproofing the home and the area surrounding it. There is a walk through videostream at the site. It also has the "Firewise construction checklist."

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (http://www.fema.gov) has several publications, including "Avoiding wildfire damage" and "Fact sheet: Wildland fires" that includes ideas regarding what homeowners should do before, during and after a fire.

The National Endowment for Financial Education (www.nefe.org) has "Are you prepared financially to survive a natural disaster?"

The American Red Cross (www.redcross.org) has "Returning home after a disaster" and "Recovering finanacially" after a disaster that covers inventory, notifying creditors and employers, insurance claims, loans and grants, and tax credits.

The U.S. Safety and Inspection Service has "Keeping food safe during an emergency" (www.fsis.usda.gov) that recommends what food to keep and what to discard.

CSU Cooperative Extension and Forest Service (www.ext.colostate.edu) has "Creating wildfire-defensible zones," "Forest home fire safety," "Vegetative recovery after wildfire" and "Soil erosion control after wildfire"