by Shirley Weathers

The Fruitland Community Wildland Fire Council has been working to make this area safer from the damage and devastation of Wildland fire since 2002. Many people have played the most critical role by contributing your time and energy to create defensible space around your homes and reduce fuels on your property.

In February 2010, the Council received notification that the area we cover had achieved Firewise Community / USA recognition status due to our work.
What is Firewise?
After the catastrophic fire season of 1985, representatives of (NFPA) and the USDA Forest Service met to discuss the increasing trend of wind-driven fire in populated areas. They formed a steering committee. In 1992, an advisory group for the program adopted the term “Firewise” to describe the state of being knowledgeable and prepared for wildfire in residential or urban settings. In 1999, the advisory group became the Wildland/Urban Interface (WUI) Working Team of the National Wildfire Coordinating Group. The WUI Working Team would oversee the National Wildland/Urban Interface Fire Program’s Firewise Communities Program. The Firewise website (www.firewise.org) launched in 1996 and the national workshop series began in 1999. Today, Firewise is a program of the National Fire Protection Association and continues the mission of wildland/urban interface fire education through the Firewise website, workshop series, community recognition program, and information resources.
What Does This Mean to Fruitland?
As a Firewise Community, we will have more resources to become more involved in preventing and preparing for wildland fire to protect communities homes and property. We have launched a campaign to organize and facilitate “Chipper Days” where neighbors can work together to assist chipper crews to deal effectively with fuels residents and property owners have gathered as they create defensible space. We will continue our previous efforts to educate the community and increase involvement such as the annual Fire Fair. Firewise status opens the door to new resources for information about the risks of wildland fire and how to prevent it and reduce its impacts should it occur.
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We will continue producing a newsletter each year and will hope Fruitland residents and property owners will make use of this website as an online source of information and news–local, state, and national–all in one place.

The National Firewise Communities Program staff provides assistance and advice to communities engaged in planning and mitigation of wildland/urgan interface fire hazards. In cooperation with state and federal partners, staff provides support to communities and their advocates by helping to identify local needs and integrate Firewise concepts into local comprehensive plans and multi-hazard mitigation plans. This helps to connect communities with appropriate tools, techniques, and technologies to further their Firewise activities.

Being a Firewise Community also brings the possibility of receiving more monetary help with our efforts. Over the years, we’ve received National Fire Grants that have allowed us to get help from fire crews with bigger projects and more skilled work than we could do ourselves, e.g., construction of fire breaks. These fire grants provide the funds to pay the crews once they have been matched dollar-for-dollar by community members’ inkind work (work on their own fire prevention/ defensible space tasks). Recognized Firewise Communities/USA areas get priority status in consideration for the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s pre-disaster mitigation planning and project grants.

So all of the hard work of residents and other property owners in the Fruitland area continues to pay off. There’s still a lot of work to be done, but we’re making progress. Go to the Firewise website to learn more.