Education Tools

Education is half of our mission. These tools help residents, neighborhood leaders, HOAs, and local fire safe councils raise awareness and drive action on wildfire preparedness in San Mateo County.

Homeowners looking for practical guidance should start with our Resources for Homeowners page. The materials below are aimed at people teaching and organizing others.

Outreach Materials You Can Use

• Living With Fire in San Mateo County — our own magazine-style guide for local residents, free to download and distribute.
• CAL FIRE Ready for Wildfire — current defensible space, hardening, and evacuation guidance with downloadable checklists suitable for community events.
• Fire Safe Marin brochures and guides — professionally produced resident-facing materials from our neighboring council, covering the same Bay Area fuels, weather, and housing stock. Their website also hosts an extensive video and webinar library that we recommend to local groups.
• IBHS Wildfire Prepared Home — the research-based standard, with homeowner checklists that make excellent handouts.
• NFPA Firewise USA — the recognition program and organizing framework for neighborhood-level action, including risk assessment templates.

Resources for Local Fire Safe Councils and Community Leaders

• California Fire Safe Council: Fire Safe Council Handbook (PDF) — how to form, govern, and sustain a local council.
• CFSC grants and funding — current funding for fuel reduction, education, and planning projects.
• Santa Cruz & San Mateo County CWPP — the regional plan your neighborhood project should tie into; see also our CWPP page.
• San Mateo County fire-safe communities — how to start or join an organized community in the county.

Suburban Wildfire Adaptation Roadmaps (IBHS)

IBHS's roadmap series lays out how parcels, neighborhoods, and communities together interrupt structure-to-structure fire spread. Useful for policy discussions with city councils, HOAs, and planning departments:

• Executive summary (PDF)
• Full roadmaps report (PDF)
• Policy companion (PDF)

Reference Works

• Encyclopedia of Wildfires and Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) Fires — comprehensive academic reference (institutional access required for full text).
• California WUI codes and regulations — our reference page on Chapter 7A, PRC 4291, and the Fire Safe Regulations.

Materials from CAL FIRE, the California Fire Safe Council, IBHS, and partner organizations are free to download and distribute, but modifications require the publisher's approval.