Protecting Our Community
from Wildfire
Your community served by a Board of your Neighbors.
The San Elijo Hills Fire Safe Council is directed by resident homeowners living in our FIREWISE certified community, working year-round to safeguard our homes.
Zone 0: Your Home's Noncombustible Moat
The first five feet around your home is where most homes ignite, not from direct flame, but from wind-driven embers landing on combustible materials next to the structure. California's 2026 Zone 0 framework focuses on keeping the areas closest to your home free of fuel, while allowing certain well-maintained landscaping elsewhere in the zone.
California's Board of Forestry adopted updated Zone 0 rules in 2026 (not yet in effect). Our checklist also draws on the voluntary Wildfire Prepared Home standard from IBHS. Zone 0 work also counts toward your annual Firewise hours.
Keep the areas closest to your home free of fuel: walls, eaves, windows, vents, and decks
Remove firewood, wood mulch and chips, and dead vegetation; keep roofs and gutters clear
Outside the required safety areas, well-maintained low plants and groundcover may remain
Maintain trees rather than automatically removing them; clear dead material
Use noncombustible fences and gates where they connect to the home
Reduce other fuels near the home (furniture, storage, vehicles), especially in high fire danger
Based on California's 2026 Zone 0 framework (Board of Forestry) and the voluntary IBHS Wildfire Prepared Home standard.
Three Areas Every Resident Must Address
Prevention
Defensible space zones, home hardening, vent protection, and fencing recommendations. Zone 0 is the starting point.
Start with Zone 0 →Preparation
Know your evacuation zone (0850, 0852, 0854, 0920, or 0921), build your go-bag, and have a communications plan ready.
Find Your Zone →Evacuation
Understand the Hi-Lo siren, Alert San Diego notifications, and your six-step action plan when an order comes.
Know Your Routes →Put this site on your phone
Save it to your home screen so it opens like an app and works even with no signal in a fire.
The Only Organization Doing This Work in San Elijo Hills
The San Elijo Hills Fire Safe Council is not a government agency. We're your neighbors — homeowners who got Firewise-certified, negotiated with CAL FIRE and San Marcos Fire, wrote a Community Wildfire Protection Plan, and organized the workshops that other councils in San Diego County reference.
That work produced something concrete: all three zones of San Elijo Hills now hold official Firewise USA® certification. That certification is the specific legal trigger for the California state law requiring your insurer to offer you a premium discount. No other council in this neighborhood did that for you — because there was no other council.
To keep that certification active, each zone needs residents to log one hour of preparedness activity per household annually. The board handles the paperwork — you submit your hours once a year.
