State wildfire coordinator urges home hardening, grant help for Incline-area communities

Kelly Neville, statewide Firewise coordinator for Fire Adapted Nevada at the Nevada Division of Forestry, told the Washoe County CAB that the most effective near-term protections against wildfire are home hardening and defensible space, and she offered the program’s help with grant navigation and local coordination.

Neville opened her presentation by describing Fire Adapted Nevada (FAN) as a partnership of the Forest Service, BLM, University of Nevada Reno Extension (Living With Fire) and the Nevada Division of Forestry that provides coordination, training, evacuation-planning support, contractor referrals, community assessments and grant navigation. "We are not a regulatory agency," she said; FAN’s role, she added, is to "guide and coordinate" and to help communities identify and pursue the work they need.

Neville emphasized practical, local measures. "The biggest thing that people can do that's the cheapest thing that you can do is to harden your home," she said, urging homeowners to clear the 0-to-5-foot zone around structures, install fire-safe vents and screening, and pursue defensible-space inspections. She said forest canopy is often less of an ignition issue than ground-level "ladder fuels" and debris immediately adjacent to homes.

She summarized grant opportunities and typical ranges: wildland-urban interface (WUI) grants commonly fund projects up to about $300,000; certain competitive programs that require a CWPP (Community Wildfire Protection Plan) can be substantially larger (transcript reference cited awards up to about $10 million); FAN and partner programs also administer smaller community grants (examples discussed in the meeting ranged from roughly $2,500 to $70,000, with some FAN-specific awards in the low five-figures). "It just depends on the project you're looking for," she said, noting that timelines vary and some awards take effect the year after they are granted.

Board members pressed on neighbor compliance and outreach. When one member asked what a homeowner should do if neighbors have hazardous ladder fuels, Neville said FAN maintains a roster of community "ambassadors" who do outreach and that the local fire district and code enforcement can pursue vegetation violations under WUI-related rules. She said outreach to absentee second-homeowners is difficult but sometimes succeeds when the fire district or a grant-funded crew is authorized to work on the property.

On evacuation planning, members recalled past exercises that focused on agency communications and limited door-to-door outreach but did not simulate full vehicle evacuations. Denise Davis said prior drills did not replicate putting cars on the road to test gridlock: "We did a practice evacuation and we had like a safety fair, but... the key thing that it did not do was an actual evacuation where we put cars on the road and see what happens." Neville and CAB members agreed this is a difficult but important gap to address in future coordination.

Neville demonstrated NevadaFireInfo (a state site managed by NDF) that lists current incidents, camera views and fire restrictions and said the platform supports push alerts. She acknowledged reports of residents not receiving alerts during a recent fire and said FAN will continue to work to close those gaps.

Neville also described the Firewise USA volunteer program: it can start with as few as eight homes, requires modest annual documentation of community actions, and can help communities pursue insurance discounts. "There's three insurance companies now locally that are offering discounts with that Firewise certification," she said, and noted FAN’s coordination with the state Department of Insurance to educate agents so they better understand defensible-space criteria.

On enforcement, Neville said the state fire marshal has adopted most of the WUI code (the transcript sometimes rendered it as "WOOI"); that adoption gives the state more authority to back local efforts; and that county code enforcement and fire districts can enforce vegetation standards though local appetite for enforcement varies.

Follow-up: Roxanna Dunn said the CAB will send FAN a previously compiled list of community suggestions and asked Neville to help bundle those items with the county’s evacuation study recommendations. "If we're looking at trying to get that at a commission meeting ... that's exactly what I do," Neville said, offering to coordinate with the fire district and with NDOT on evacuation-related recommendations. She also offered to post a contact link and a list of local Firewise communities in the meeting chat.

What remains open: timelines and application details for specific grants (some programs require a CWPP or multi-year commitment), who will lead outreach to absentee homeowners, and a schedule for a joint follow-up meeting with the fire district and NDOT to produce actionable evacuation steps. The CAB did not take formal action or vote on grant applications during the session; members asked staff to pursue coordination with FAN and agency partners as a next step.