Fire Safe Council

Westhills FireSafe Council

The Westhills FireSafe Council was founded in 2009 under the aegis of the
Westhills Homeowners Association. It serves a subdivision of 175 homes in the
western end of the San Fernando Valley in the unincorporated area of Los
Angeles County. The neighborhood is in a very high fire hazard zone. The
subdivision has a single access road for all 175 homes and is bordered on
three sides by Los Angeles city parks, the Upper Las Virgenes Canyon Park
and twenty acres of undeveloped land. Since 1965, there have been several
large fires that have resulted in evacuations and damages to homes, yards and
outbuildings.

The Westhills FireSafe Council’s mission is to mobilize residents to protect
ourselves, our community and the surrounding park environment from wild fires.
Since its founding, the FireSafe Council has surveyed residents on their level of
preparedness and their priorities for the FireSafe Council. We have distributed
both resident ID cards to identify residents’ cars in the case of an emergency
and literature provided by LA Country Fire and State Farm Insurance Company
on improving home and community safety. We lobbied successfully for tree
removal and land clearance on adjoining properties and helped to publicize the
Alert LA County service with residents. When a Red Flag Warning has been
issued for the area, members of the FireSafe Council display a large warning
sign visible for those entering or leaving the subdivision.

As we know from experience that wild fires and other emergencies can start
when we are not at home, we distributed Neighbor Emergency Cards to allow
sharing of contact information and requests. We received an unrestricted grant
for $500 from the California FireSafe Councils. Look for a future update on how
we use these funds.

Until further notice the Westhills FireSafe Council ZOOM meets will be
conducted on the first Wednesday of the month from 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. .All
are welcome to join the meeting.