Does your fire department operate in the wildland/urban interface (WUI)?
Do you need a tool that will help you reach out to the residents who live in the WUI so they’re prepared when wildland fire strikes?
Then Ready, Set, Go! will help you.
The Ready, Set, Go! (RSG) program is a collaborative process that can improve coordination and communication between emergency response agencies and the community. Developing the Ready, Set, Go! program in your community can help build partnerships and clarify and refine priorities to protect life, property, infrastructure and valued resources.
Ready, Set, Go! is a public-education program with two core focuses:
1
Stress and teach personal responsibility to those people who elect to live within the WUI, incorporating them into the wildland fire solution by educating them in wildland fire preparation, prevention and evacuation and what to do if trapped.
2
Begin to contain WUI fire-suppression costs and reduce injuries by making communities less vulnerable to wildland fires through prevention and preparation, construction and retrofitting, defensible space and fire-resistant landscaping, and WUI fuel modification as a result of informed construction and development planning.
As a major public paradigm shift designed to enlist personal responsibility, this is a public-education program that must have long-term support to be successful. RSG is designed to work in a complimentary fashion with other programs (such as Firewise, Living with Fire, Take Responsibility, FireSmart, etc), and to provide a framework for existing programs to achieve the goal of fire-adapted communities.
The program is based on the idea that, during a major wildland fire, especially during the early stages, there may not be enough firefighting resources to protect every home. Ready, Set, Go! encourages residents to take personal responsibility for preparing their property and family and, by doing so, become a part of the solution to the problem of increasing fire losses during wildland fires.
Research shows that structures destroyed during wildland fires are the result of embers in the ignition zone rather than direct flame impingement. The Ready, Set, Go! program places special emphasis on the ember environment (home ignition zone), instructing homeowners on concepts such as defensible space, fire-safe construction and fire-resistant landscaping. At the same time, it teaches residents what to do when threatened by a wildland fire.
Eight states are piloting RSG in 2010 as part of the process to make it a long-term national and international concept. The program is being developed and managed by the IAFC with support from the RSG stakeholders. This is an evolving program that will be modified to fit the needs of its target audience and stakeholders over time.
READY Teach the public to prepare well in advance of a wildland fire. Tell people how to retrofit their homes and take preventive actions to mitigate the effects of ember intrusion in the home ignition zone using Firewise and similar principles.
SET Teach the public to elevate their families’ situational awareness when fire weather occurs or when wildland fires are burning and to monitor the environment and be ready to implement a family disaster plan.
GO This is the simplest step: Encourage the public to implement a family disaster plan by leaving early, well before the fire arrives.
The RSG Action plan also includes information to educate people how to survive, if trapped by a wildland fire.
RSG Personal Wildland Action Plan (pdf, 1 mb): Provides a guide of considerations that residents can use to become part of Ready, Set, Go!
RSG Program Guide (pdf): An overview of the Ready, Set, Go! program for fire departments, including ideas for implementation on programs and how to evaluate their effectiveness.
Create fire-adapted communities (FAC) situated in high fire-hazard environments that are designed, constructed, retrofitted, managed and maintained in a manner that requires little fire-suppression assistance during wildland fires.
Residents of these communities will:
Take personal responsibility for living in the WUI and the home ignition zone
Possess the knowledge and skills to effectively prepare their home for survival from wildland fire
Evacuate early and safely when ordered
If trapped, practice learned skills to survive the wildland fire
