What Really Matters
The question is, why have a Fire Safe Council?
The Fire Safe Council is here to help educate our neighbors on how to protect themselves and the whole community during a disaster. The FSC is a non-profit that allows us to secure monies from grants and donations to fund projects in our neighborhood. We are working together as a neighborhood to get the word out, get the work done, and help each other for the safety of us all!
Why?
Fire Safe Councils are about more than “fire.”
We are about public safety. We collaborate with
other organizations in our endeavors: CalFire Yucaipa,
SBCSD Yucaipa, CERT, Neighborhood Watch, Veterans,
Red Cross, and all the government agencies. Our primary
role is education and communication – wherever there are meetings, we can be there to share valuable information in advance of the disaster. Wildfire preparation is a critical component of living in our (Wildland Urban Interface) areas.
We choose to reside away from the "city," but that brings different and very real challenges for being prepared.
The Goal
Our goal is to provide our neighbors updates and information from our local, state, and federal agencies regarding fire prevention and protection efforts and conditions; to learn what is being done by our agency partners to make our lives safer; and to acknowledge our role in those efforts. We CAN make a difference in how our neighborhood survives a wildfire.
Interested in helping with our fire safe council? Contact us and we will be glad to get you more information!
About Us
Wildwood Watchers Fire Safe Council was formed in 2022 following the El Dorado and Apple Fires which started very near our homes and property. Ash rained down, aircraft roared overhead, and the flames and smoke grew larger until we were evacuated for a week. Unfortunately, the Wildwood Canyon State Park, sharing boundaries with several of the neighbors, is very overgrown and unmaintained, and provides a direct fire threat to our neighborhood. Thankfully, firefighters were able to keep the fire out of the State Park and the neighborhood. We are now working with State Parks, CalFire, County Fire, and the City of Yucaipa to create fuel breaks inside and around the park’s boundaries.
To increase neighborhood communications, a text network was created. This network has been used for multiple different neighborhood issues -- from lost pets to power outages, road closures and even the evacuation. In August of 2019, Doug Williams, creator of the text network, was awarded the Vision for Safety Hero Award by The County of San Bernardino.
It became clear that as residents of the WUI (Wildland Urban Interface), we needed to work with local officials to identify and address the issues associated with the park. After consulting with Yucaipa Fire Chief Grant Malinowski, we created a Firewise Community in 2021 as a means to address these threats. But, that was not enough.
In 2022, we began the process of applying for a 501c3 tax exempt status in order to secure grants and donations to fund projects. In 2023, we attained official 501(c)3 status from the IRS. With the help of the Mountain Rim FSC, Wildwood Watchers FSC was born. The newly formed FSC applied for and received a $20K grant to be used for startup costs.
WWFSC is also actively involved in the Inland Empire Fire Safe Alliance (IEFSA), a coalition of 14 fire safe councils which meets bi-monthly with agency partners to discuss successes, challenges, and activity updates.
