A Risk Assessment is required Firewise USA^®  as a component of your initial Firewise Community recognition and is required to be renewed every five (5) years. The Risk Assessment highlights a community's wildfire resiliency as demonstrated by its current defensible space, home hardening and topography.

A risk assessment is also a key tool used to write your Firewise Community’s Three-Year Action Plan, which needs to be updated every three (3) years to maintain Firewise Community recognition.​

• • HowTo-WriteSuccessfulRiskAssessment-3
  • Community Wildfire Risk Assessment Tutorial from Firewise USA^®
  • Firewise Risk Assessment Form from Firewise USA^®
  • Using Google Forms to Collect Data

Pro tip: Action Plans need to follow the recommendations in the Assessments. Using the different action plan goals (Education & Outreach, Home Hardening, Defensible Space/Fuels, Evacuation Planning/Wildfire Preparedness) in the Assessment Summary and Recommendation sections, helps with this pairing. 

• EXAMPLES OF PAIRED ASSESSMENTS AND ACTION PLANS

  Rural community area with large parcels.

  • NewSchool_Tobacco FirewiseCommAssess_2025_share
  • 11_28_25 New School Tobacco Action-Plan_share

  Community in Grass Valley, with mostly smaller parcels.

  • AltaHillFWC_Assessment_2025_share
  • AltaHillFWC_ActionPlan _2025_share

  Nevada City Community, co-housing with common areas.

  • Red Bud FirewiseCommAssessment_2025_share
  • 12_9_25_Redbud Action Plan_share