The Fire Safe Council of Nevada County is a sub recipient of FEMA's home hardening retrofit grant. This award is for Phase One and will total $234,000. The Phase One timeline is July 12, 2024-July 12, 2025. 

The Fire Safe Council Home Hardening Retrofit Program helps high fire-risk communities work together to strengthen homes and create defensible space. Home hardening involves upgrading homes with fire-resistant materials, while defensible space reduces wildfire threats by creating a safety buffer around properties. To qualify for the program, homeowners must first pass a defensible space inspection in accordance with their local vegetation ordinance before any retrofits can be completed by a licensed contractor.

The Home Hardening Retrofit Program, funded by FEMA through Cal OES, provides essential financial assistance to help residents strengthen their homes and improve community-wide fire resilience. Through a 90/10 cost-sharing reimbursement model, the program covers 90% of approved retrofit costs, with homeowners responsible for just 10%.

The goal of this grant is to retrofit 150 existing homes with code compliant products to update structure protection against ember intrusion from wildfire. The Fire Safe Council of Nevada County will review and approve eligible home hardening improvement plans developed by and with each applicant.