Potential Insurance Discounts
Important: Insurance companies determine their own eligibility requirements and available discounts, which may change over time. GOH Firewise provides documentation of your participation in our recognized Firewise USA® site but cannot guarantee that a particular insurer will offer or continue a discount.
Volunteer Hours
One of the strengths of a Firewise USA® community is the commitment of neighbors working together to reduce wildfire risk.
Every year, GOH Firewise is required to report our community’s volunteer hours and qualifying wildfire-mitigation expenditures to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) as part of our annual renewal as a recognized Firewise USA® Site.
Whether you spend one hour or one hundred hours improving your property, every contribution helps demonstrate our community’s commitment to wildfire preparedness. More importantly, every hour represents another step toward making your home—and our entire community—safer from wildfire.
Submitting your Volunteer Hourly Worksheet also provides documentation of your participation in our Firewise community. After we receive and review your completed worksheet, we will email you a Certificate of Participation, which you may be able to use with your insurance company to qualify for any available Firewise-related discounts or mitigation credits they offer.*
Volunteer Hourly Worksheets are due each year by August 15. Please wait until that time to submit your worksheet unless instructed otherwise. Receiving all worksheets together greatly simplifies our volunteer workload and allows us to efficiently compile the information needed for our annual Firewise renewal.
Complete Qualifying Wildfire Mitigation Activities
Examples include:
- Creating and maintaining defensible space
- Making home-hardening improvements
- Attending GOH Firewise educational events
- Participating in community workdays
- Helping plan or organize Firewise activities
- Performing other qualifying activities listed on the Volunteer Hourly Worksheet
Please be aware that you should report the time you take or money you spend to do any simple task to mitigate wildfire risk on your Volunteer Hourly Worksheet. Weed abatement, tree-trimming, clearing dead vegetation, replacing vents, or installing ember-resistant features all count.
If your gardener or other supplier performs work that mitigates risk, be sure to add their cost to the expenditure portion of the worksheet. You can add their time or their cost—not both. The NFPA converts expenditures into time.
Not sure what else qualifies?
Click to download the "Example Activities for Firewise Volunteer Hours PDF" for dozens of ideas to help protect your home, earn volunteer hours, and contribute to GOH's annual Firewise renewal.
Record Your Hours and submit by August 15
For the easiest submission, complete the worksheet on your computer, save it, and email it to the appropriate Firewise committee representative. If you complete the worksheet by hand, please scan it or take a clear photo before emailing it, or deliver it to one of our committee members.
Email your completed worksheet to the Firewise committee for your Zone (please select the correct email to use based on where you live):
GlenOak Hills HOA: excom@gohfirewise.com
Rancho Glenoaks HOA: bjahanbani@verizon.net
No HOA, on or north of Via de Oro: bjahanbani@verizon.net
Receive your Certificate of Participation
We’ll compile the community totals, email your Certificate of Participation, and apply to the NFPA to ensure our community can continue to be recognized as a Firewise USA® Site.
Why your participation matters
To maintain our recognition as a Firewise USA® Site, our community must demonstrate an annual investment in wildfire risk reduction through volunteer hours and qualifying expenditures.
With more than 400 properties in our Firewise site, our goal is to document at least one hour per property. Some households contribute many more hours than others, but every contribution is valuable and helps strengthen our community’s overall effort.
Maintaining our Firewise recognition helps demonstrate GOH’s ongoing commitment to wildfire preparedness and helps preserve the many educational, community, and potential insurance-related benefits associated with participating in a recognized Firewise USA® Site.
