source: City of Berkeley
Outside of the present site, there are three primary sources of information for Berkeley resources regarding wildfire prevention, preparedness, and related issues.
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the City of Berkeley Website has a section on Fire | City of Berkeley. Some of its relevant subsections:
- Fire Stations | City of Berkeley
- Fire Prevention | City of Berkeley. This is where to find out how to request a fire inspection.
- Preparing Property for Wildfire | City of Berkeley—this valuable page discusses creating defensible space in your lot, hardening your home, using in general free city programs to get rid of wildfire fuel, and organizing your neighborhood as a Firewise neighborhood. Read it!
- Fire Weather and Evacuation | City of Berkeley, another extremely valuable page that helps you prepare for wildfire weather and plan for evacuation. It could mean, for your family, the difference between life and death. Read it!
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The Berkeley Fire Department hosts a remarkable website named Fire Safe Berkeley, at BerkeleyFiresafe.org. Every section is valuable and should be read. A few notable ones:
- BFD’s excellent self-inspection checklist [PDF] shows, in 4 pages, what you can do to decrease wildfire risk. Don’t fool yourself: every point in this checklist is worthwhile.
- Wildfire Risks — Fire Safe Berkeley a great education section that explains how wildfire spreads. One cool link in this section: this Stanford 1-hour webinar on the lessons of the SoCal fires.
- How to Create Defensible Space — Fire Safe Berkeley
- How to Harden your Home — Fire Safe Berkeley
- Insurance Resources — Fire Safe Berkeley An interesting link to the CA Dept of Insurance provides 10 separate insurance discounts (in practice, not very big, but each demonstrates commitment to fire safety to the insurance company). The section also discusses Berkeley fire mitigation programs available to residents.
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Finally, a non-profit, originally related to the Hillside neighborhood, powers the Berkeley Firesafe Council website, which is totally different from BFD’s website. The Firesafe Council is dedicated to preventing the next wildfire in Berkeley. Its primary programs focus largely on removing dangerous trees and shrubs. One particularly interesting subsection:
- FireSafe Resources | Berkeley Firesafe Council discusses excellent wildfire research, and possible landscaping options.
