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Wildfire Mitigation Advisors
Sonoma County landscape where Wildfire Mitigation Advisors provides on-site property assessments

Professional On-Site Assessment

Protect Your Property Before the Next Wildfire

A certified wildfire specialist visits your property, evaluates over 100 risk factors, and delivers a written action plan to protect your home, your family, and your insurance coverage.

Schedule Your Wildfire AssessmentView Assessment Pricing

A wildfire assessment is a professional, on-site evaluation of your property's specific weaknesses when it comes to wildfire. It covers your home's structure, your defensible space, your access and water supply, and the fire environment around you. You receive a detailed written report with prioritized steps to reduce your risk.

Your Assessment Includes

This is not a quick walk-around. It is a detailed, hands-on evaluation of your property by Stuart Mitchell or a certified member of our team. Here is exactly what you get:

  • On-site property evaluation (1 to 3 hours)
  • Structure review: roof, vents, eaves, siding, windows, decks, fencing
  • Defensible space evaluation across all three zones
  • Topography and wind exposure analysis
  • Access road and evacuation route review
  • Photo documentation of every significant finding
  • Written report with prioritized action plan
  • Insurance and mitigation guidance
Wildfire mitigation specialists evaluating home exterior vulnerabilities during an on-site property assessment

Photo: Berkeley FireSafe Council (firesafeberkeley.org)

Defensible Space Evaluation

We check vegetation across all zones, from the 0 to 5 foot non-combustible area right next to your house out to the 100-foot perimeter. We identify specific plants and ground cover that create risk and recommend practical alternatives that grow well in Sonoma County.

Structural Vulnerability Review

We examine your roof, siding, windows, vents, eaves, decks, fencing, and attached structures. Even well-maintained homes often have hidden weak points, like an unscreened attic vent, a wood fence touching the house, or combustible items stored under a deck.

Photo Documentation

Your report includes photos of every significant finding. You can see exactly what we observed and share the documentation with contractors, insurance adjusters, or real estate agents.

Prioritized Action Plan

Not all improvements are equally urgent. We rank every recommendation by impact so you can focus your budget on the changes that lower risk the most. This is where our experience across 1,000+ assessments pays off.

Site-Specific Risk Factors

We look at slope, sun exposure, wind patterns, access roads, water supply, and how your property relates to the surrounding wildland. A home at the top of a steep canyon in Mark West Springs faces very different conditions than a home on flat ground in Sebastopol or Windsor.

Community and Neighborhood Context

Your property does not exist by itself. We assess how your neighbors manage their vegetation, your community infrastructure, and local fire department response times, because all of these affect your overall risk.

Burned hillside with a smoldering utility pole after a California wildfire, showing the extent of fire damage across the landscape

A smoldering utility pole on a burned hillside. This is what fire leaves behind when properties are unprepared.

Why a Professional Wildfire Assessment Matters

The 2017 Tubbs Fire destroyed over 5,600 structures in Sonoma County. Many of them were in neighborhoods where residents believed they were safe. The fires that followed in 2019 and 2020 reinforced what we had been telling homeowners for years: wildfire does not pick favorites, and preparation is the single most effective thing you can do.

A professional assessment gives you something no website, checklist, or well-meaning neighbor can: an objective, trained evaluation of your specific property by someone who has seen hundreds of different situations and understands how fire moves through our local terrain.

We work with homeowners across the region. That includes Santa Rosa neighborhoods like Fountaingrove and Coffey Park (many of which rebuilt after 2017), longtime residents in Kenwood, Glen Ellen, and the Sonoma Valley, and property owners in Sebastopol, Occidental, Forestville, and the western Sonoma County corridor. We also serve Napa County from Calistoga to American Canyon, and Marin County communities like San Rafael, Novato, and Mill Valley.

Whether you are worried about insurance, getting ready for fire season, buying or selling a home, or simply want peace of mind, a wildfire assessment is the most important first step.

What to Expect During Your Assessment

1

Initial Consultation

Call us or reach out through our website. We will talk about your property, your concerns, and what you want to accomplish. There is no charge for this conversation.

2

Pre-Site Agreement

Before scheduling, we send a short agreement that explains the scope of work and what to expect. Once you sign and return it, we set up your visit.

3

On-Site Evaluation

Stuart Mitchell or a certified team member walks your entire property. The visit takes 1 to 3 hours depending on property size. We photograph key areas and talk through our initial observations with you on-site.

4

Written Report

Within 7 to 10 business days, you receive your full report with photographs, findings, and a ranked list of recommendations specific to your property.

5

Follow-Up Support

We stay available for questions. We can help with insurance documentation, contractor guidance, community mitigation planning, and re-evaluation after you complete improvements.

Wildfire Assessment Questions

Common questions from Sonoma County homeowners about professional wildfire assessments

Yes, and this is one of the most common reasons homeowners in Sonoma County contact us. Insurance companies across California are dropping policies in fire-prone areas at a record pace. A professional assessment from a Certified Wildfire Mitigation Specialist gives you documented proof that you have taken real steps to lower your property's wildfire risk. When you show an insurer a detailed report with defensible space improvements, home hardening work, and a clear action plan, you prove that your property is a lower risk than it might look on a map. Several of our clients in Fountaingrove, Mark West Springs, Sebastopol, and the Sonoma Mountain corridor have kept or regained standard insurance after finishing the work we recommended. We cannot guarantee any insurance decision. That is always up to your carrier. But we can give you the strongest documentation possible to support your case.
Cal Fire provides great general information, and we encourage every homeowner to use their resources. But there is a big difference between general guidelines and a professional assessment tailored to your specific property. Cal Fire's website offers statewide guidance. It cannot account for the unique shape of your lot, the specific plants growing within 100 feet of your house, the building materials on your home, your neighborhood's road access, or the wind patterns that affect fire behavior on your particular hillside. Our assessments look at over 100 individual factors on your property. We find the issues that matter most for your situation and rank them so you spend money where it counts. We have completed over 1,000 property assessments across Sonoma, Napa, and Marin Counties. That kind of experience means we have seen nearly every scenario and know what actually works in our region.
A generic checklist is a good starting point, but it is not a replacement for a professional evaluation. Here is why: Every property is different. A checklist might say "clear plants 5 feet from your home." But it will not tell you that a particular oak tree on your lot drops leaves that pile up in a critical roof valley. It will not flag the fence connecting your neighbor's yard to yours that creates a direct fire path to your eaves. Our assessments go far beyond checklists. We look at your roof's age, your siding type, the condition of your vents, and the materials in your deck and fencing. We consider how your property sits in the landscape: slope, sun exposure, wind direction, and what is uphill from you. We also look at your community's roads, water supply, and evacuation routes. Most importantly, we help you prioritize. Not every item on a generic list matters equally for every home. We help you focus your time and money on the changes that will make the biggest difference for your situation.
Several types of professionals offer wildfire assessments in Sonoma County: Cal Fire staff, local fire agencies, Firewise USA coordinators, and private specialists like Wildfire Mitigation Advisors. What sets our service apart is specialization and credentials. Stuart Mitchell holds the NFPA Certified Wildfire Mitigation Specialist (CWMS) credential, one of the most rigorous certifications in this field. It is not a weekend course. It requires proven expertise in wildfire behavior, building science, defensible space management, and community risk assessment. We have been doing wildfire assessments in Sonoma County since before the 2017 Tubbs Fire. We have assessed properties in virtually every neighborhood from Healdsburg to Petaluma, from Sebastopol and Occidental to Glen Ellen. Our only focus is wildfire mitigation. We do not sell products, cut trees, or do construction work. That independence means our recommendations are always objective and based on what is best for you.
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Find Out What Threatens Your Property

Over 1,000 property owners in Sonoma, Napa, and Marin Counties trust us to identify their risks, prioritize the fixes, and build a clear plan. Schedule your assessment today.

Schedule Your Wildfire Assessment