What is a Fire Safe Council?

Fire Safe Councils are grass roots, community-led organizations that first appeared in California in the early 1990s. The local organizations are often begun in response to a fire affecting the area and all work to mobilize residents to make their neighborhoods more fire safe.

All local Fire Safe Council sare independent entities. There are nearly 150 Fire Safe Councils throughout California educating homeowners and   working with local fire officials to increase the wildfire survivability of their communities. San Diego County is home to 46 of these councils, more than any county in the state.

The California Fire Safe Council (CFSC) was formed in 1993. In addition to supporting local Fire Safe Councils and other wildfire preparedness groups, CFSC acts as a clearinghouse for grant fund distribution from several federal agencies.

Rooted in Near Disaster: Formation of the Deer Springs Fire Safe Council

The destructive and deadly fires of late October 2003 provided a wake-up call to residents and fire officials alike. The Valley Center Paradise Fire nearly reached the Deer Springs area but was halted by a shift in the wind direction. During the fire's westward march, there was little or no information available to North County residents from fire or law enforcement officials while media coverage focused on the larger Cedar Fire to our south. 

A group of 14 Deer Springs Fire Protection District residents met in the months that followed to discuss the events and look for solutions to some of the problems they identified. The two most pressing concerns expressed by this group, as well as many other members the community, were the limited number of escape routes and the lack of communication from public safety officials. The only available sources of information were the San Diego television and radio stations but they were focused on the larger Cedar Fire.

To address these and other concerns, the group developed a list of goals and determined that achieving these goals would best be accomplished by a Fire Safe Council—a local community-led organization that first appeared in California in the 1990s. The new council would work in cooperation with the Deer Springs Fire Protection District within district boundaries. These goals included education, prevention, communication, and emergency response.

The Deer Springs Fire Safe Council was officially incorporated as a 501(c)(3) (non-profit) Corporation on June 17, 2004 with an organizational board of directors consisting of five residents of the fire prevention district. The council has expanded the elected board to include as many as nine members to help ensure representation of the different communities within the district.