About Fire Safe Santa Cruz County

Fire Safe Santa Cruz County (FSSCC) was formed in September 2016 as a nonprofit corporation, 501(c)(3), in the state of California through collaboration between local fire safe councils, CAL FIRE, local government, water districts, non-profit organizations, industry, and the Resource Conservation District of Santa Cruz County (RCD). FSSCC is overseen by a Board of Directors. The RCD temporarily serves as the group’s fiscal and administrative sponsor, while we build capacity.

Our Mission

The purpose of Fire Safe Santa Cruz County (FSSCC) is to educate and mobilize the people of Santa Cruz County to protect their community, homes, and environment from wildfire.

Context

Two-thirds of Santa Cruz County is considered Wildland Urban Interface (WUI), putting a large percentage of our population, housing, economy, wildlife, and environment at risk from catastrophic fire.

Valuable Programs We Provide:

Helping the public learn to live with fire in Santa Cruz County
Disseminating guidelines for preparing our homes to resist wildfires (home hardening)
Disseminating guidelines for reducing fuels around our homes and neighborhoods
Assistance to neighbors wanting to form Firewise Communities and work collaboratively to make their homes and neighborhoods more resilient to wildland fires
Educational public presentations on wildfire resilience strategies (examples include Residential Insurance Cancelations and Home Hardening Strategies)
In conjunction with our partners, provide response to individual homeowner requests for assistance, such as chipping programs

End Results

To embrace proactive steps we can all take to make our homes, our neighborhoods, our communities, and our County more resilient to wildfires through education, home hardening, strategic fuel reduction, and community collaboration.