What Really Matters
The question is, why have a Fire Safe council? Answer: members of our neighborhood need to know what to do to make and keep us safe from wildfire. Why? Anything that our neighbors do (or don’t do) can have a direct effect on us…GOOD or BAD.
The Fire Safe Council is here to help educate our neighbors to protect the whole community, HOUSE BY HOUSE. We must work as neighborhood groups, get the word out, and get the work done. Let’s work smart and help each other for the safety of us all!
Why?
Fire Safe Councils are about more than “fire,”
we are about public safety. We collaborate with other organizations in our endeavors: COP’s, CERT, Neighborhood Watch, Veterans, Red Cross, and all the government agencies. Our primary role is education and communication – wherever there are meetings, we can be there to share valuable information in advance of the disaster. Wildfire preparation is a critical component of living in the mountain (Wildland Urban Interface) areas. We choose to reside away from the "city," but that brings different and very real challenges for being prepared.
The Goal
Our goal is to provide citizens updates and information from our local, state, and federal agencies regarding fire prevention and protection efforts and conditions, to learn what is being done by our agency partners to make our lives safer and to acknowledge our role in those efforts. We CAN make a difference in how our neighborhood survives a wildfire.
Interested in starting a fire safe council in your community? Contact us and we will be glad to help!
About Us
Our organization was formed in 1998 following the 1997 Mill Fire which started on Forest Service land by recreational shooters. Citizens rallied against the dangers thought to arise from a shooting range below our community. The Front Country Alliance was created as a means to address these threats. It became clear that as residents of the WUI (Wildland Urban Interface), we needed to take more responsibility for OUR properties and what we could do to make them more fire safe. In 1999, mentored by California Department of Forestry (CDF - now CAL FIRE) Battalion Chief Steve Faris, the mountain came together to form the Mountain Rim Fire Safe Council. Our Council joined Chief Faris in spreading the word and ultimately help create more than 14 councils throughout the Inland Empire.
In 2000, we attained official 501(c)3 status. MRFSC has received over $5,500,000 in grants, which have been used for fuels reduction and fire prevention education in the Rim communities from Crestline to Green Valley Lake (110 square miles). We have funded innumerable Community Chipper Days (even before the County started its program), Adopt-A-Hydrant, smoke alarms, and brush removal assistance programs. In 2002, 2004, 2007, and 2021, we published the informative "Living with Wildfire in the Inland Empire" multi-page newspaper inserts (2002, 2004 & 2007) and magazine (2021), distributed across the mountain and throughout the Inland Empire. MRFSC actively led in the organization of the Inland Empire Fire Safe Alliance (IEFSA), a coalition of 14 fire safe councils which meets bi-monthly with agency partners to discuss successes, challenges, and activity updates.