Home Evaluations

The Santa Barbara County Fire Safe Council can help you and your family prepare for wildfires.

What is a Home Evaluation?

A Home Evaluation is a free and voluntary review of the vulnerability of your house and landscape to wildfire and ember-ignition. During this assessment, an evaluator will review defensible space and home hardening principles and make specific recommendations based on your property. Additionally, being prepared for wildfire goes beyond hardening the home and creating defensible space – it is also about preparing the people. Evacuation is a huge concern for residents, so this evaluation also reviews your evacuation preparedness so you can be safer and feel more prepared in the event of an evacuation.

Evaluations can approximately 45 minutes, and are performed by SBFSC staff. The homeowner is under no obligation to complete any of the recommendations, though we may follow up to find out if the homeowner decided to do any of the improvements, and if not, what barriers to completion the homeowner encountered. We will use this information to determine what incentive programs might be developed to help homeowners to complete more of these ignition-resisting improvements.

Lastly, there is no regulatory enforcement associated with this evaluation. The evaluation is simply to provide more detailed information to homeowners about how to make their homes and their families more prepared for the next wildfire. No information will be shared with outside organizations or personnel outside of the SBFSC.