Defensible Space, It’s Time to Prepare—Hayward, Fairview, and Five Canyons
As part of the Hayward Fire Department’s education, assistance, and prevention program to improve wildfire safety in high hazard areas of Hayward, Fairview, and the Five Canyons communities ahead of wildfire season, we have developed a three-part video series to show case our current defensible space efforts and we are asking for your participation in a defensible space survey.
Grant funds awarded to the City of Hayward allowed us to implement our own defensible space efforts in the Hayward Hills. We have completed a large-scale defensible space project and want to share with you a set of videos with before, during, and after walk throughs of the project area. You can visit our Defensible Space Project page here to watch all the videos.
It is never out of season for defensible space—working on defensible space year-round makes the work more manageable by breaking it up into smaller sections, without a sense of urgency to get it completed in the approaching hot weather. Doing the work during the winter months also reduces the risk of starting a fire due to the dry climate and vegetation.
As part of our defensible space education program, we are asking anyone who lives in the Hayward Hills, Fairview, and Five Canyons to show us the work they have done to create defensible space by submitting before and after photos of their space to firesafehfd@hayward-ca.gov. To learn more about our no-cost residential chipping program that helps homeowners create defensible space and to apply to participate, please visit the program webpage here. We will start the scheduling of chipping work on the week of May 22, 2023, and continue to until funds are depleted.
A wildfire-safe Hayward, Fairview, and Five Canyons—the areas served by the Hayward Fire Department—is the ultimate long-term goal of the initiative, which has already implemented an online community instruction series on vegetation management and related topics, financial support for property owners in need, and free chipping services. You can watch workshop sessions here – covering wildlife and ecosystem preservation, evacuation, and the big picture on wildfire safety in the urban-wildland interface. Any questions regarding our programs please email firesafehfd@hayward-ca.gov or call 510-583-4930 to leave a voicemail.
