A group of dedicated volunteers from The Villages participated in a two-day training program on October 16 and 18 to help the community work toward becoming designated as a Firewise community. Organized by The Villages’ Ad Hoc Fire Safety Committee, the training was conducted by the Santa Clara County FireSafe Council. Ten volunteers learned about wildfire science, fire behavior, and methods for enhancing wildfire resiliency in The Villages.
In addition to classroom learning, the training included fieldwork where volunteers were introduced to Fire Aside software, used on an iPad for data collection. They practiced using the software at both a single-family home and a condominium building. In the coming weeks, these volunteers will collect data on various homes and facilities in The Villages as part of the process for earning the Firewise designation. This effort will involve reviewing data from the 2,536 homes in the community, as well as Club Facilities, over the next few months.
Stay tuned for more updates as the initiative progresses.
