Community Wildfire Protection Plan
A Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP) is a document developed primarily by your local fire department in collaboration with County, State, and Federal agencies, as well as the community itself. It serves as a detailed assessment of our current hazards, plans to minimize them as best we can, and outlines for emergency response in the event of wildfire. The CWPP is very important for emergency preparedness throughout our response area, and serves as a gateway to qualifying for a multitude of grants - both to RCVFD and to homeowners.
The last time the greater Rist Canyon community developed a CWPP was in 2010. That document is still available, but in November 2025, we formed a team to update and rewrite the CWPP to reflect our changing community, hazards, needs, and available tools. For more information on this ongoing effort, see the January 2026 Ristwatch for a lot more details. We hope to complete the new CWPP by Spring/Summer 2026.
Want to get involved? Look for articles in the Ristwatch as well as Community Alerts soliciting your input. This is a community-wide effort, and we want your help!
Request a Home Assessment
If you would like RCVFD to conduct an assessment of your property under the Wildfire Partners Program, fill out your information below and one of our firefighters will contact you to schedule an appointment.
5 Easy Things To Help Prevent a Structure Fire
Perform your own home safety audit using the checklist from PFA located on the menu and here
Inspect and clean your chimney as needed. Factors that effect how often you may need to maintain your chimney are type of wood burned, how hot you burn your fires, how often you burn, and the construction/age of your fireplace/wood stove and chimney. If in doubt seek the recommendations of a professional chimney sweep.
Check your smoke alarms monthly. Replace them every 10 years. If you don't have smoke alarms in the required locations go get some right away.
Do you have a carbon monoxide alarm? Many newer fire alarms are now fire and CO combined. Modern CO alarms can also detect hazardous gases like propane. Check with the manufacturer for more information.
Keep flammable liquids away from furnaces and water heaters.
AirMedCare Network Membership
5 Ways to Live Safer in the Mountains
- How is your D-Space? Creating defensible space doesn't mean a clearcut around the perimeter of your property. In fact, managing your forest to increase canopy clearing and effective use of zoning can dramatically increase the health of your forest and make you safer. Our fire-adapted trees need continuous thinning to be healthy for generations to come. Defensible space is needed to slow or stop the spread of wildfire and it protects your home from catching fire— either from direct flame contact or radiant heat. Defensible space is also important for the protection of the firefighters defending your home.
- Can your house survive an ember storm? Are there combustible items near your house? Firewood stacked on the deck from last winter? Walk around your house a couple times during the summer and remove combustible items next to your house. Check gutters and valleys for pine needles and remove them. If possible, close openings that sparks or embers can enter into your home.
- Have an evacuation plan and list. There are all kinds of resources available on our site and the greater web for evacuation plans. Sometimes depending on the speed of the fire you may only have a few minutes or few hours to prepare -keep this in mind when developing a priortized evacuation plan.
- Keep informed regarding current fire conditions during the summer. Lots of moisture in the winter and spring can result in more fast burning fuels.
- Work together as a community! Many hands make light work! Your mitigation may only be as good as your neighbors. We are an independent mountain community but when it comes to wildfire we rely on each other to do their part. The more we work together the safer we make our properties and our neighborhoods. Can a fire truck get down or up your road? Is there a second way out? Is your address clearly marked? All these things can make a big difference on how much firefighters can do to save your home
CPR Guidelines For Residents
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Call 911 and if not trained in CPR provide Hands-Only CPR, or CPR without breaths, pushing hard and fast in the center of the chest to the rate of 100-120 compressions per minute.
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If are trained in CPR then perform breaths, add breaths in a 30:2 compressions-to-breaths ratio.
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When calling 911, place the phone on speaker, so the dispatcher can help you check for breathing, get the precise location and provide instructions for performing CPR.
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Dispatchers should be trained to help bystanders check for breathing and recognize cardiac arrest. Dispatchers should also be aware that brief generalized seizures may be an early sign of cardiac arrest.
Source heart.org
About 92 percent of sudden cardiac arrest victims die before reaching the hospital, but statistics prove that if more people knew CPR, more lives could be saved. Immediate CPR can double, or even triple, a victim’s chance of survival. The use of CPR dates all the way back to 1740, yet even today, most Americans don’t know how to perform it. Given properly and immediately to sudden cardiac arrest victims, CPR can save lives. Check out local resources and learn CPR. Some communities host a quarterly CPR party sponsored by area hospitals.
Each volunteer responder is certified in basic CPR and participates in frequent CPR refreshers as part of RCVFD's emergency response program.