Innovation Platform spoke with Don Green, President of Wildfire Protection, Inc., about the organization’s efforts to increase wildfire preparedness in underserved communities and proactive strategies aimed at reducing the threat of wildfires.
Wildfires pose a significant threat to communities, especially in areas prone to dry conditions and strong winds. The devastating effects of these fires can lead to loss of human life as well as homes and natural landscapes. As climate change amplifies these risks, it is more important than ever to take proactive measures to combat wildfires.
Wildfire Protection, Inc. plays a critical role in addressing these challenges by providing underserved and high-risk communities with the knowledge and resources they need for effective wildfire preparedness. To learn more about southern Arizona’s wildfire dangers and Wildfire Protection Inc.’s efforts to address these dangers, we spoke with Don Green, the organization’s president.
Can you give us an overview of your organization and how Wildfire Protection Inc. is improving wildfire preparedness in our region?
While wildfires are inevitable in many landscapes, the loss of homes and communities is not always avoidable. The difference between devastation and survival is often preparation. When people understand how wildfires work and take proactive steps to protect their homes, the results change dramatically.
Wildfire Protection, Inc. is a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping underserved and high-risk communities prepare for wildfires. Our activities are primarily concentrated in Santa Cruz County, Arizona. Many residents there live in wildfire-prone areas but may not have access to the funds or information they need to protect their homes.
Our approach focuses on prevention and preparedness. We offer free wildfire education, property risk assessments, and practical mitigation strategies to help homeowners reduce the risk of fires around their homes. We also introduce the latest wildfire prevention tools to communities, including fire-resistant building techniques and long-term fire protection treatments to create a barrier around structures before a wildfire starts.
Our ultimate goal is to help communities become “fire adaptive.” When residents understand how wildfires work and take simple but effective protective measures, entire neighborhoods become more resilient.
What are the most common causes of wildfires in the areas you serve and how does Wildfire Protection, Inc. address these causes in prevention efforts?
In southern Arizona and its surrounding desert and mountain regions, wildfires are commonly caused by a combination of human activity and natural phenomena, such as lightning strikes during monsoon storms. Dried vegetation, monsoon winds, and prolonged drought conditions can cause even small ignitions to spread quickly.
While it is impossible to eliminate all ignition sources, we focus on mitigating the situation where a fire spreads and threatens a home. Through property assessments and community workshops, we help residents identify ignition risks such as flammable materials near buildings, vulnerable vents, and vegetation that can carry fire or embers into buildings.
Reducing these vulnerabilities, especially in the immediate area of a home, can dramatically increase the home’s chances of survival if a nearby wildfire occurs.
How do wildfires spread, and what specific strategies are most effective for wildfire control?
Wildfires spread through direct contact with flames, radiant heat, and airborne embers. Embers often pose the greatest threat to homes because they can travel long distances ahead of wildfires and ignite buildings before the main fire front arrives.
For this reason, many of our strategies focus on preventing embers from igniting. We help homeowners remove flammable materials around their homes, install fire-resistant vent screens, and take home hardening measures to reduce structural vulnerabilities.
We also promote proactive protection strategies, such as the use of long-term flame retardant treatments that create a fire-resistant barrier around homes and vegetation. These treatments help reduce the chance of embers and flames igniting structures in the event of a wildfire.
Rather than focusing solely on the ignition source, our approach focuses on mitigating the conditions in which fire threatens a home in the first place. It is not possible to prevent all wildfires from starting. As we often tell our residents, the chances of your home being destroyed by a wildfire can be dramatically reduced.
We help homeowners address factors that allow fire to spread to a structure by identifying hazards such as dense vegetation near the structure, flammable materials around the building, and weak structural features.
What warning signs should residents be aware of that indicate an increased risk of wildfire in their area?
Environmental conditions can increase the risk of wildfires. Prolonged periods of dry weather, high temperatures, and low humidity cause plants to dry quickly and become highly flammable. Strong winds can also increase the spread of fires, potentially carrying embers over long distances.
Residents should also be aware that seasonal thunderstorms, especially during Arizona’s monsoon season, can cause fires in remote areas. By understanding these warning signs, communities can take precautions during periods of heightened fire danger, such as avoiding high-risk activities and creating defensible space around homes.
Your organization protects the community through a combination of activism and education. Can you tell us more about the educational initiatives offered by Wildfire Protection, Inc.?
We host community workshops and seminars to teach residents how wildfires work and how to ignite their homes. Many people are surprised to learn that relatively small vulnerabilities, such as fallen leaves in a gutter or a tree stake near a home, can be enough to set a house on fire during an ember storm. Our goal is to provide homeowners with clear, actionable information they can put to use right away.
These programs cover topics such as identifying fire hazards, creating defensible spaces, ember-proofing your home, and understanding how wildfires work. Our goal is to provide clear, actionable information that residents can immediately use to reduce wildfire risk.
Another element of wildfire risk management is letting residents know how to safely stay home and protect themselves, and when and how it is safe to stay and not evacuate. This is controversial, as authorities have warned residents not to evacuate even if ordered to do so. Identifying which conditions are suitable to support livability and protection decisions is often ignored, so we provide this information to enhance homeowners’ decision-making process.
Wildfire Protection, Inc is focused on protecting underserved communities. What support do you provide to families affected by wildfires in underserved communities? Do you face unique challenges when working with low-income communities on wildfire preparedness?
Underserved communities often face higher wildfire risk because they may lack the financial resources needed for mitigation efforts such as vegetation management, structural improvements, and specialized protection systems.
Wildfire Protection, Inc. addresses this gap by providing free education, risk assessments, and guidance to help residents identify the most important and cost-effective actions to protect their homes. We provide free fire protection screens and long-term fire protection treatment for flammable plants next to your home. Flame retardant treatments are important because they can make vegetation fire-resistant, which increases the likelihood that embers will not ignite nearby vegetation.
One of the biggest challenges is ensuring that wildfire preparedness resources are available to everyone, regardless of income. Many residents have simply not had access to wildfire mitigation programs or technical information until now. We aim to make wildfire protection knowledge and resources more equitable by focusing specifically on underserved communities.
What lessons from past wildfires can inform current strategies?
One of the most important lessons from past wildfires is that many homes are lost due to small vulnerabilities such as embers entering vents, combustible materials near structures, or vegetation too close to buildings. These lessons emphasized the importance of prevention and home hardening. By identifying and eliminating these vulnerabilities before a fire occurs, communities can significantly reduce structural losses.
Our current strategy focuses on pre-mitigation (fire screens and fire protection treatments for vegetation), education and community collaboration. Because we are most resilient to wildfires when entire neighborhoods work together.
Are there any upcoming projects or initiatives that you are particularly looking forward to? Are there any opportunities or partnerships available for those interested in supporting your mission?
Wildfire Protection, Inc. continues to expand its programs to provide assistance to more vulnerable communities in wildfire-prone areas of Santa Cruz County. We are particularly excited to strengthen our community education efforts and expand our property assessment program to help residents identify wildfire risk before fire season begins. We also continue to explore innovative wildfire protection tools, including advanced flame retardants and home hardening solutions, that can improve the survivability of structures during wildfire events.
Partnerships are essential to this effort. We welcome collaboration with community organizations, emergency services, local authorities and individuals who wish to support bushfire preparedness efforts. Wildfire resilience is a shared responsibility, and by working together we can protect more families and communities.
This article will be featured in an upcoming Wildfires Special Focus Publication.
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