Firewise Community Project
What is Firewise?
The Firewise USA program helps homeowners and communities learn how to best address wildfire risks to their properties and surroundings. The program was established in 2002, and there are now thousands of Firewise communities across all 50 states.
The Haw Creek Firewise program was initiated in 2025. The City of Asheville provided a grant to the HCCA, which was used to produce a community wide risk assessment and 3 year plan.
Becoming a Firewise community involves educating our homeowners, making assessments of the ignition risks around individual homes and taking risk reduction steps. We currently have 13 trained volunteer assessors and have completed close to 30 home assessments and are well on our way to becoming officially Firewise USA Certified.
How You Can Reduce Wildfire Risk at Your Home
Step 1. Get Your Assessment
The assessment takes 30-45 minutes, is carried out by a trained volunteer from the community, and is all done outside the home. The assessment will leave you with 3-5 practical recommendations to improve the fire resilience of your home.
Step 2: Take Action to Reduce Risks
Perform risk reduction work as you see fit. There is no obligation, but the objective of the assessment is to give you easy, practical solutions to some of the major wildfire risks affecting your property.
More Ways to Be Prepared
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