Our beautiful homes are located in a high risk fire area. Currently there are almost 60 locations in Placer County armed with 85 cameras monitoring smoke using artificial intelligence. Placer County also uses satellites to detect fire ignitions. Thus far these tools have successfully caught almost 30% of fire ignitions, particularly those in remote areas, before 9-1-1 calls were made. Additional cameras are being added to the system to further improve wildfire early detection and response.
While we reduce our vulnerability through hardening and mitigation by raking pine needles, taking down dead trees, and using fire resistant building materials, we have no control over fire ignitions such as dry lightning or human-caused fires.
If a wildfire were to ignite and evacuation needed, Placer County has a system to ensure that we are all notified. Please sign up for Placer Alert and if you rent your unit, please contact your STR company to ensure that your guests also sign up for Placer Alert. In the event of an evacuation, everyone should leave quickly and follow the directions from the alert. Working together, fire agencies’ role will be to reduce fire hazards along evacuation corridors while the Placer County Sheriff’s Department will help guide evacuations as well as patrol evacuated areas to prevent looting.
Another good source of information for the current status of fires and evacuations is Watch Duty. The app shows the status of various fires across the country. It also shows you the amount of acreage consumed by each fire and any evacuation orders and warnings for the fires. Watch Duty knows your location so you can see what fires are near you.
And some good news about the very large parcel near us – the 186 acre parcel (“The Vedanta Project” – Shivagiri Road) near us is slated to have dead and dying trees removed in the next year or so which will continue to reduce our risk of fire.
If you are interested in learning more about wildfire evacuation, you can access the presentation, “Eastern Placer County Wildfire Preparation For All Homeowners and Visitors”, in the link below.
7/14/26 Eastern Placer Wildfire Evacuation Preparedness Town Hall