Communities Hardening Actions

Protecting the community does not need to be expensive.

1. Many of the protective actions are relatively inexpensive:
   1. Ember protection (Table A): two-thirds (66 %) of the actions are least expensive ($)
      Always fully protect structures and property from embers.
   2. Fire protection (Table C): three-fourths (75 %) of the actions are least expensive ($)
2. HMM aims to minimize costs by prioritizing the 3 R’s — Remove, Reduce, Relocate — before spending money on structure and property protection.
3. HMM only suggests spending money on structure fire protection when there is substantial value added. When the anticipated fire exposure is too severe, HMM does not recommend retrofitting exterior walls because the hardening is unlikely to be effective at preventing structure-to-structure ignition. Illustration