Hand crews from Diablo Canyon and Phoenix and inmates working under the authority of the Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management conducted brush removal around the Cottages at Coffeepot homeowners’ association on the morning of Feb. 3.
“Coffee Pot is a Firewise USA community and they’ve been instrumental in Sedona with getting other communities on board and bringing people together and letting them know about the [program],” DFFM Public Affairs Officer Tiffany Davila said. “So as a way to say thank you to them for being so involved, we’ve got two of our hand crews out here working to clear some of the common areas for the residents.”
The community brush removal is part of a new initiative by DFFM to assist Firewise communities.
“We’re starting to do this all across the state [for] other communities, even down in southern and central Arizona,” DFFM North Zone Prevention Captain Matt Rust said. “We did our first project here and we came to finish up the work.”
In December 2020, the Cottages at Coffeepot HOA, became the first community in the Sedona Fire District to achieve Firewise USA certification, which encourages safety measures such as reducing brush around residences and developing a fire plan.
“The reason we started is our HOA looked at what kind of events are likely to be an emergency for us in our neighborhood,” said Catherine Knox, chairwoman of the Cottages Firewise Committee. “Based on that, we decided fire was our number one thing we needed to be prepared for.”
At the time the community earned its Firewise recognition , Knox “expressed hope that other Sedona communities would follow suit in implementing similar fire preparedness initiatives.”
LaBarranca II received Firewise recognition on June 8, 2023, followed by the Firecliff Community Association on Sept. 6, 2024, and Canyon Mesa Country Club on Nov. 11, 2024. Knox said that an Uptown HOA was also scheduled to tour the Cottages to learn more about the program.
“Their biggest deterrent is the people who believe that being Firewise means clear-cutting around your home,” Knox said. “So we wanted them to come in and see the landscaping in our neighborhood doesn’t require that to be Firewise.”
Davila argued that a lack of precipitation so far during the winter and high temperatures in Phoenix “could lead to an early start to the fire season.”
“We want our homeowners to be engaged and concerned about their property,” Davila said. “The fires in California have really spurred more interest with residents in Arizona about getting this work done and becoming Firewise certified and creating defensible space around their homes to protect their properties from a potential catastrophic wildfire. We all do work throughout the year … But the street goes both ways. We need homeowners to do their part as well. We can only do so much.”
“It’s never too early to start creating defensible space around your homes, around your properties,” Davila said. “It’s the little things like basic yard maintenance, anything that you can do to make sure your property is secure and safe from a potential wildfire. Don’t wait until it’s too late.”
HOA members interested in a Firewise certification and residents interested in a free fire risk assessment can contact SFD Deputy Fire Marshal Kirk Riddell at (928) 204-8926 or kriddell@sedonafire.org.
