Wildfires are scary, deadly, and can move faster than other natural disasters but they’re not always unexpected. Any small window of warning gives us time to prepare, do things that can prevent damage, and hopefully, escape their worst effects. Here’s a list of things you can do before and after a wildfire.

Before the fire

Create a defensible space around your home by clearing any dry vegetation, trimming trees, and maintaining a buffer zone of at least 5 feet between vegetation and the edges of your house. Work on home hardening tasks like making sure all your house vents in eaves have screens with holes no larger than 1/8th of an inch, to prevent embers from entering your roof’s vents. Ensure you have fire-resistant roofing materials (or can switch the next time your roof is redone), good insulated multi-pane windows, and clean your gutters regularly, as leaves can spread fire quickly along your roofline. 

Read more about home hardening before a wildfire

Planning and awareness

Many wildfires result in area-wide evacuation orders, delivered suddenly to all residents. To prepare yourself today, think about your own possible evacuation paths that might lead away from where you live. Consider multiple routes out of your city in the event of a fire—how would you flee to the north, south, east, and west, while also staying off the main roads which would likely be clogged with traffic? Keep those in mind when you’ll need them.

Establish a designated meeting point for all family members where you can check in with each other, and propose the location before an evacuation. That might be neighboring towns where you have friends, or it can be nearby places you’ve gone on short vacations in the past. Assemble an emergency Go Bag kit with essentials like medications, important documents, N95 masks for smoke, and supplies like food, water, and clothing that can cover several days for your whole family.

Sign up for local emergency alerts and know your area's fire danger ratings and what each different set of alert levels mean.

During a fire

Monitor official sources for updates and be ready to evacuate immediately when ordered. Make a checklist of quick steps if you can, like closing windows, moving furniture to the center of rooms, and shutting off the main gas line before evacuating. Also remember that life is more valuable than property.

Evacuation

Take your emergency kit, wear protective clothing, keep your car windows closed, and watch for changing conditions that might block escape routes, and remember your alternative paths in case you need to change direction. Ideally, stick to roads that skirt around towns to avoid any traffic snarls from area evacuation.

After the Fire

We’ve written about how to return to your home and get the rebuilding process started, but the gist is that you should only return home when authorities say it's safe, watch for hot spots and damaged structures, and document all damage for insurance. Be aware of air quality and soil quality concerns as you start accessing a variety of disaster assistance resources found in this additional guide.