What are our goals?

Provide education and resources to help our residents make their homes, property and community more fire-safe
Coordinate wild-fire planning and response with local and state agencies
Aid our residents in learning how to
- create a defensible space
- prepare for a possible wildfire
- plan for evacuation to safety

What is a Firewise Community?

The national Firewise USA® recognition program provides a collaborative framework to help neighbors to reduce wildfire risks at a local level. We are one of over 50 Firewise communities in Monterey County.
The annual criteria are designed to empower and engage residents living in wildfire prone areas to organize, plan and act so they can increase their home's chances of surviving a wildfire, while also making it safer for firefighters.
Rancho del Sol applied for and was recognized as a Firewise Community in 2022. This required us to write a three year Action Plan, among other things.

What is required to maintain our certification in "good standing"?

Each year our community will conduct an educational program.

All homeowners must participate in property maintenance of defensible space (CalFire now calls these "ignition zones") as required by state and county laws. Each year owners will be asked to self report an estimate of the time and/or dollars spent on maintaining fire safety - (The Firewise Committee will contact you for this)

Here is a form from Cal Fire (Dept. of Forestry) that shows how state laws apply to particular maintenance activities
Here is a list from Cal Fire of activities that count towards "maintaining fire safety"
We evaluate our progress toward achieving our goals outlined in the three-year action plan
Every 3 years we update our plan; and every five years we reassess our fire risk
Here is a copy of our 2024 Firewise Certificate

What is an ignition zone and what do I do about it?

The Rancho del Sol geographic area is located within a State Responsibility Area (SRA), which means that Cal Fire is the primary emergency response organization responsible for fire suppression and prevention. (Use the State Responsibility Area Viewer to check out your property's hazard risk).

Here is a whole updated (2024) website page on Fire Hazard Severity Zones.

Because we are located in an SRA, homeowners are required by several California laws to create and maintain 100 feet (or to the property line) of defensible space. This is further broken down into 3 Ignition Zones where homes are vulnerable to three ignition sources: embers, surface fires and crown fires.

IMMEDIATE ZONE: 0-5 feet from any existing structure - create an "ember-resistant zone", including under and around decks; this requires stringent fuel reduction.
INTERMEDIATE ZONE: 5 -30 feet out create a "Lean, Clean & Green" zone immediately surrounding your home

EXTENDED ZONE: 30 -100 feet (or up to the property line, whichever is closer) create a "Reduce Fuel Zone"

Overall, to increase the chance your home will survive a wildfire the emphasis is on
- limiting the amount of flammable vegetation
- choosing ignition resistant building materials and construction techniques,
- and conducting regular exterior maintenance in the home ignition zones

SEE THIS NFPA PAGE FOR SPECIFIC DETAILS ON WHAT EACH ZONE REQUIRES and...

A presentation on March 5, 2025, by CalFire presents the most updated information available on the Zone 0 requirements and its applicability to a property's hazard risk.