State Farm® and NFPA® announce recipients of 2022 Wildfire Community Preparedness Day Project Awards

According to the U.S. Department of Interior, as many as 90 percent of wildland fires in the United States are caused by people. Some human-caused fires result from campfires left unattended, the burning of debris, downed power lines, negligently discarded cigarettes and intentional acts of arson. The remaining 10 percent are started by lightning or lava.

Efforts to reduce the impact from wildfires are more important now than ever before. Wildfire Community Preparedness Day is held on May 7 and focuses on what people can do on and around their homes to help protect against the threat of wildfire. Thanks to generous support from State Farm, NFPA is giving each of the 100 winning communities a $500 project funding award to complete a planned wildfire risk reduction project on event day. See the list of winners.

Preparedness Day encourages people and organizations to come together to take action and raise awareness of wildfire risks. It also provides a platform to share information and offer guidance to residents as they make changes to improve the survival of their homes and neighborhoods. Each year individuals and communities can apply to receive a funding award to help support their risk reduction projects on Preparedness Day. This year’s award recipients were chosen from 24 states.

As the U.S. has witnessed a steady rise in wildfire activity, research around home destruction versus home survival in wildfires point to embers and small flames as the main way most homes ignite in wildfires; voluntary individual and community actions continue to be a major component to reducing wildfire risk around homes and neighborhoods.

“There are a number of simple but effective steps residents can take to prepare ahead of a wildfire,” said Lorraine Carli, NFPA vice president of Outreach and Advocacy. “Preparedness Day brings awareness to these activities and helps guide actions on event day. It’s also exciting to see people use this annual event as a springboard to engage in more wildfire mitigation work in their communities throughout the year.”

There is still time to make homes and communities safer from wildfire. NFPA and State Farm encourage people to get involved by planning a project and participating on May 7. Take the first step with the help of NFPA’s free Wildfire Community Preparedness Day Toolkit.