The FireSmart Home Partners Program (HPP) is a voluntary property assessment program that helps residents identify specific actions and upgrades they can take on their property to reduce wildfire risks.
The program’s primary purpose is to engage homeowners in voluntary wildfire mitigation activities by offering a professional home assessment with property-specific recommendations. This approach provides them with a comprehensive FireSmart road map for their property.
Formally trained and qualified fire service professionals conduct the assessment to evaluate a home and property for wildfire exposure, while engaging the homeowner in their unique risk and ways to reduce it.
When the assessment is complete, the homeowner will receive a detailed report outlining the recommended action items for their property. When the property owner meets all mitigation criteria, they will receive a mitigation certificate confirming that they met the FireSmart best practices on their property. The certificate can be used to receive a discount on home insurance (subject to insurance agency participation).
The Home Partners Program is currently only offered in British Columbia. To sign up for an assessment or to know if an assessment is available in your area, visit the FireSmart BC Home Partners Program webpage.
Becoming a HPP assessor
The FireSmart Home Partners Program is based on the proven effectiveness of home and property scale mitigation actions and offers a nationally recognized model and standardized system to create a detailed, customized, defendable, and measurable wildfire hazard assessment. This personalized hazard assessment is catered to homeowners and developed to engage them into conducting voluntary fire mitigation activities. This program is currently only offered in British Columbia.
FireSmart Canada has developed a comprehensive training program to prepare fire service professionals and local authority representatives to become Home Partner Program assessors, also called Wildfire Mitigation Specialists (WMS).
The WMS training is a 32-hour course designed to prepare participants to competently use the HPP home assessment framework and teach them how to prevent structure loss caused by wildland fire. The training will include an in-depth look at the Wildland Urban Interface (WUI), wildfire and structure fire behavior, building components including materials, codes and fire ratings, landscaping and forest management, current wildfire risk reduction science, technical program operation, site visit planning and program coordinator and management.
If you are local authority in B.C. interested in taking part in the WMS training or would like more information, contact the Provincial Home Partners Program Coordinator at: homepartners@firesmartbc.ca or visit the FireSmart BC website.