"Before it's too late"
Preventing the next catastrophic wildfire in Berkeley
Berkeley FireSafe Council - Dedicated to fire safety for our community in the Berkeley neighborhoods
Preventing the next catastrophic wildfire in Berkeley
Berkeley FireSafe Council (BFSC) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization whose mission is to prevent the next catastrophic fire in Berkeley. We are a member of the California Fire Safe Councils. BFSC is part of the Hillside Association of Berkeley (HAB), which was formed over 30 years ago to serve community interests. Our motto “Before It's Too Late” reflects the fact that, despite significant efforts by many, the risk of a catastrophic fire in Berkeley remains largely unmitigated. Effective mitigation will require three principal strategies: (1) Widespread defensible space, including Zone Zero in very high fire hazard severity zones, (2) Widespread home hardening, particularly screening vents and gutters, and (3) Significant hazardous fuel reduction, including hazardous trees, both inside and east of the City, particularly in the fire pathways. See Wildfire Risk Reduction Strategies in Berkeley. May 2025
As our work is largely dependent on donations from neighbors like you, we would like to provide our update to share the significant progress that has been made. Thank you for your support. We welcome your questions and feedback.
Click here for our paper
See our updated position paper summarizing the catastrophic wildfire risk that exists in Berkeley, and describing five actions that need to be taken to essentially eliminate this risk.
Click here for our paper
BFSC has identified three principal strategies are needed by the City of Berkeley and its partners to significantly reduce the number of structure ignitions in a wildfire.
Click here for our paper
BFSC, working with our various partners, has completed extensive mapping of all the groves in Berkeley withhighly flammable, extremely dangerous fuel.
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We occassionally send out a newsletter, status updates on our campaigns, and alerts.
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Berkeley FireSafe Council (BFSC) is a community not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization with the primary mission of preventing the next catastrophic fire in Berkeley. We also support our public officials, advocate for needed public action, inform residents and public officials, and support preparedness and training. We also coordinate with other fire safety groups. We are a member of the California Fire Safe Councils, non-profits throughout the state at the city and county levels dedicated to fire safety. CA Fire Safe Council was formed in 1993 by CAL FIRE. BFSC is part of the Hillside Association of Berkeley (HAB), which was formed over 30 years ago to preserve the unique nature of our community and its interests.
Our motto “Before It's Too Late” reflects the fact that, despite significant efforts by public landowners, the threat of a catastrophic fire in Berkeley remains largely unmitigated. Effective mitigation will require the removal of all or most of the hazardous fuel in the Berkeley and Oakland hills and in Tilden Park, primarily eucalyptus, which constitutes the vast majority of hazardous fuel and is the most dangerous. Eliminating this risk will require cleaning up the understory of all the eucalyptus groves in Berkeley and Oakland, on the UC Berkeley campus, and in Tilden Park, and then replacing the eucalyptus and other hazardous trees with non-hazardous, non-invasive species. This will be a large task requiring the commitment of all large landowners. Yet, it can be done, and with less money and more quickly than most believe. We need to remove the fuel that will destroy much of Berkeley, Oakland, and the adjacent cities - before it's too late.
There have been two catastrophic fires in the last 100 years, the 1923 Berkeley Fire and the 1991 Tunnel Fire. Both fires became catastrophic largely by the presence of the eucalyptus trees. The Tunnel Fire killed 25 people and destroyed 3,400 homes. The 1923 fire destroyed 600 homes, a number that would be several times larger today due to increased density. Both fires would have been far worse without favorable shifts in the wind. They could have burned all the way to the Bay.
Our principal focus since 2019 has been fuel reduction, focusing first on the 100+ tons of eucalyptus debris in the understory of 10 groves among the homes in the Berkeley Hills. In cooperation with Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and with support from the City of Berkeley, we first cleaned up much of the most dangerous location in Berkeley, a small canyon just above Hilgard Avenue that we call “Hidden Canyon” comprised of 250 eucalyptus trees. Berkeley Lab hired a private tree contractor to remove low branches and saplings and clean up the ground on its side of the upper canyon, while we organized UC Berkeley student volunteer events to clean up the understory in the lower part of the canyon on both public and private land. We have continued this volunteer-led model, leading 28 events to date involving over 50 residents and over 500 students. We estimate that we have removed 75 tons of highly flammable eucalyptus bark, branches and leaves from the understory of six of the groves, perhaps half of the accumulated fuel. These clean ups have been funded by over $45,000 in community donations and, most recently, by a $15,000 UC Berkeley Chancellor's grant. The funds are used primarily to pay honorariums to the UC Berkeley student service organizations that recruit their members as volunteers.
Please let us know if you have any questions by sending an email to info@firesafeberkeley.org