North Coast Opportunities outlines Lake County pilot to harden homes against wildfire

North Coast Opportunities (NCO) and a representative of the California Wildfire Mitigation Program gave a progress report to the Lake County Board of Supervisors on a home-hardening pilot centered in the Kelseyville Riviera neighborhood, saying the effort aims to reduce ignition from embers and build a replicable statewide model.

Diana Fernway, program manager for the Lake County Home Partnering Program at North Coast Opportunities, told the board the program has completed one year of construction work and provided free or subsidized home hardening to vulnerable households. Fernway said most of the homes lost to wildfire are ignited by embers and that the program focuses on "ember intrusion" protections such as vents, screens, gutters and other retrofits.

Jay Lopez, who presented background on the California Wildfire Mitigation Program and its legislative origin, said the program was created after Assembly Bill 38 (2019) and the joint authority formed by CAL FIRE and Cal OES in 2021. Lopez said Lake County received the program's first grant in 2023 and that the work being done locally is intended to become a model other communities can use.

NCO said the…