Before the Fire

Your Family

5 QUICK TIPS TO PREPARE YOUR FAMILY

TIP 1: Have a plan!  Complete your Family Disaster and Community Plan (include the care of pets / helpful safety tips for pets), aiding family members with access and functional needs and safely shutting off utilities).

TIP 2: Make a kit for your family!  Include supplies for infants and young children and seniors.

TIP 3: Prepare your kids at a level appropriate for their age.

TIP 4: Complete the Chelan County Special Needs Registry (Espanol) if you live with persons with special needs.

TIP 5: Know at least two ways out of your home and neighborhood and PRACTICE.

Make a kit and have plan for your pets!

Click on the video above to see how you can prepare an evacuation plan ahead of time for our furry and feathered friends!

Your Home & Landscape

Identify and create areas of defensible space.  Defensible space is a buffer around homes or on the landscape that have been maintained or created to limit the transmission of fire.  Defensible space also includes areas where firefighters have a safe place to defend structures and allow for emergency vehicle ingress and egress.  Defensible space is crucial to protecting your home or property from wildfire if firefighters are not present.

10 THINGS TO DO BEFORE A WILDFIRE

  1. Request an assessment to determine fire risk factors, such as ember intrusion.
  2. Harden your home by replacing flammable siding, roof and deck materials with non-combustible materials.
  3. Replace vent screens with 1/8″ or smaller metal mesh.
  4. Clear brush from along your driveway to allow better access for emergency vehicles and make sure your address sign is clearly visible (e.g., reflective numbering) so emergency crews can find your home and respond to fire, ambulance, or police calls quickly without delay.
  5. Clean roofs, gutters and decks (move flammable furniture, remove dead branches and pine needles).
  6. Move wood piles at lease 30 feet away from structures.
  7. Complete a home inventory by using the State Farm Home Inventory Checklist or by video-taping or photographing your entire home and contents.
  8. Talk with your insurance company to make sure your insurance is up-to-date and adequate for your needs.
  9. Join or become a recognized FIREWISE Community and implement Firewise recommendations.
  10. Learn about your Community Wildfire Protection Plan.

Forest Landowners

CWSC strives to promote forests adapted to fire by collaborating with forest and landowners to implement fuel reduction projects and coordinate biomass utilization.  We believe that through these actions we will create a community that accepts wildfire as a natural part of our ecosystem, resulting in healthy fire adapted forests. 

Business Owners

As a community, we live in an area where wildfire is a natural part of our landscape and as business owners we are very aware of the impacts of emergencies on our livelihood. Road closures, poor media coverage, floods, avalanches, smoke, heavy snow, a bad flu season, and economic downtown…All of this can impact your business.  With planning, many of these impacts can be mitigated.   

RESOURCES:

These resources include tools to help you plan, prepare, and protect and maintain operations when affected by wildfire. They include worksheets to help businesses analyze the risks, effects, and consequences of disruption and a guide to help develop recovery strategies.

  • Go Kits.  Build and maintain an Emergency “To Go” Kit.  Your kit should also be in one container and ready to “grab and go” in case you are evacuated from your workplace.  Know where they are located.
  • Shelter in Place.  Be prepared to shelter at work for at least 24 hours. Make sure you have food and water and other necessities like medicines in your kit.
  • Evacuation.  Post a map of evacuation routes in a visible location.  Practice!  Know how long it will take to get ready & evacuate.  
  • Special Needs.  If you work with or employee persons with special needs, complete the Chelan County Special Needs Registry.

Complete your Business Emergency and Communications Plan.  Your emergency plan should address how to safely shut off utilities (and where the shut-off switches are located), what to bring with you, and a back-up of all electronic and hard copy business records. Learn More

BUSINESS CONTINUITY PLAN

A business continuity plan is a plan to continue operations if a place of business is affected by different levels of disaster (e.g., localized short term disasters, days long building wide problems, permanent loss of a building).

  • Determine which business functions are essential.  Is the internet critical for your business?  Do you have a back-up plan in case the internet is unavailable?
  • Talk with your insurance agent about what type of coverage you have and whether or not you are adequately protected.
  • Protect your assets – document/photograph your inventory.
  • Store copies of back up copies of electronic data, insurance paperwork, and supplier information off-site.
  • Support community wildfire preparation efforts:  provide Firewise building and landscaping info to developers for new home construction; offer discounts for the purchase of Firewise home and landscaping materials; distribute education and outreach materials; provide fire information packets to visitors/tourists.
  • Collaborate with neighboring businesses and the Bavarian Village Business Association to connect and bridge community wildfire preparation efforts.
  • Partner with the CWSC to sponsor a business continuity planning workshop or event or learn how we can assist you in developing a business continuity plan or a community resilience plan.