Preparing for a Wildfire: Pre-Evacuation Plan
Wildfires are dynamic, unpredictable, and fast — embers can leapfrog miles ahead of the actual flame front, surprising people who were told the fire was still a safe distance away. That’s exactly why the single most important piece of wildfire advice isn’t about gear or home hardening. It’s this: evacuate early, and don’t wait for an official order if you feel unsafe.
Everything below is designed to happen before that moment arrives.
Know the Evacuation Levels
Most areas use a three-level system, though the exact wording varies by state:
Level 1 — Ready: There’s a wildfire threat in your area. Load your emergency kit and the items on your evacuation list, and start monitoring conditions.
Level 2 — Set: Significant danger, high probability of evacuation. Have your kit loaded and your family, pets, and vehicle ready to leave at a moment’s notice.
Level 3 — Go: Immediate danger. Leave now — do not wait to gather belongings or take any home-protection steps.
Learn what your specific county or fire agency calls these levels, since wording differs, but the escalation logic is the same everywhere.
Build Defensible Space
Defensible space is the buffer around your home that gives firefighters an actual chance to protect it — and reduces the odds the fire reaches your house at all.
Keep the five feet closest to your home free of mulch, woodpiles, dead plants, and anything else that can catch an ember.
Clear brush and thin bushes so there’s real separation between them, not a continuous fuel path.
Remove dead branches and limbs hanging over your house, and keep trees thinned so branches aren’t closer than about 10 feet apart.
Stack firewood at least 100 feet from your home, never directly against a structure.
Keep your driveway clear and wide enough for a fire engine to actually turn around — a long, narrow, blocked driveway can mean your home gets skipped entirely, since firefighters have to triage based on survivability.
Harden Your Home
Replace wood roofing, shingles, or shakes with a Class-A rated material — firefighters often can’t tell if wood shingles are treated, and may choose to defend a home that’s more likely to survive.
Cover vents with 1/8-inch or smaller metal mesh so embers can’t get inside and ignite your attic.
Enclose open eaves, and clean gutters regularly so they’re not holding dry debris.
Replace single-pane windows with double-paned, tempered glass where you can.
Prepare Your Evacuation Kit Before You Need It
If you live in a wildfire-prone area, keep your On-Foot Kit by your front door, not in a closet or garage — you may only have seconds. If you have time as conditions escalate, gather:
Keys, phone, wallet and ID, medicine and eyeglasses
Your Grab + Go Box and Ready-to-Load Evacuation Kit
Wristbands on wrists and pet collars
If You Have Pets or Livestock
Bring pets inside and keep them in the same room as you so they’re easy to grab. Get livestock out early — if you can’t move them safely, spray paint or otherwise mark them with your house number so they can be identified and returned later.
A Note on Wellness
Watching a wildfire threat develop is genuinely stressful, and that stress alone can make it harder to think clearly about what to pack or when to leave. If you feel yourself freezing up, pause and take a few slow breaths, then focus on just the next single task in front of you rather than the whole situation at once. Preparing ahead of time — so you’re not making these decisions for the first time under pressure — is itself one of the most effective ways to stay calm when it counts.
Ready to build your own wildfire plan? The Grab + Go Box includes the full Guidebook, Action Plans, and Disaster Deck referenced throughout this post, so your evacuation kit is already built before you ever need it.
You’ve got this.