Build a Residential Defensible-Space and Brush-Clearing Service

  1. Map the wildfire-risk neighborhoods around you
    1 hour

    This step produces your territory: a one-page shortlist of three neighborhoods within daily driving distance, each flagged by a public hazard map. The trap is that no single national map settles this — hazard zones are set by your state and county, and your fire district enforces its own code — so you layer three maps and keep only what they agree on.

    1. State layer. Search “[state] fire hazard severity zones map.” California publishes these through CAL FIRE; most other wildfire states publish an equivalent under a different name — wildfire risk map, WUI map, ember-zone map. Save it if your state has one.
    2. County layer. Open your county planning or GIS department’s wildfire-risk and vegetation map, or call the county fire department and ask which hazard map they work from. That is the layer that matches what a fire marshal checks.
    3. Community layer. Open the Firewise USA list and note the Firewise communities in your county — those homeowners have already heard the defensible-space message.
    4. Cross the layers. Mark the overlap on Google Maps, then drive it. Note homes that back onto grass, brush, or forest edge, and streets with a single way in and out.
    5. Shortlist. Keep three neighborhoods within daily driving distance. Write each one with the map that flagged it, the fire district that serves it, and the streets you will walk.