Response services
Help for the day of the fire
These services are not among the 12 measures California insurers recognise under Safer from Wildfires, and they do not qualify a property for a mitigation discount. We list them because homeowners keep asking us who provides them. If a discount is what you are after, the 12 measures are where that work sits.
Private fire response
Crews and equipment retained in advance to defend a specific property during an active fire.
See who provides thisPre-staged protective materials
Protective wrap, shielding and retardant products supplied for a property before fire season, including materials cut and labelled in advance, and gels or coatings applied ahead of an approaching fire.
See who provides thisMonitoring and early detection
Cameras, sensors and monitoring services that alert a property owner to fire activity nearby.
See who provides thisHow response differs from mitigation
Mitigation is work you do to the building and the ground around it, months or years before anything happens: a Class A roof, ember-resistant vents, a noncombustible deck, the five feet closest to the walls cleared of anything that burns. That work is permanent, it is inspected, and because it is written into California regulation it is the work a carrier can credit.
Response is what happens in the hours around a fire. Somebody applies a retardant or gel to the structure, stages protective materials on the property in advance, or monitors conditions and tells you early. It can matter enormously on the day, and it is a legitimate service to buy. It is simply a different category of thing, and no part of it appears in the Safer from Wildfires schedule.
What that means for your policy
Nothing on this page qualifies a property for a mitigation discount, and any business that tells you otherwise is describing a discount that does not exist. There is no recognised credit in California for an active wildfire defence system. If a discount is part of why you are spending the money, put it into the 12 measures first, then look at response on its own merits.
Before you sign anything
Ask who is actually on the ground on the day, and under what conditions they will not come: most response providers have an evacuation threshold beyond which nobody enters. Ask what happens to any pre-staged materials left on your property, whether their access depends on a road that may be closed, and how the service interacts with your local fire agency's instructions. An evacuation order from an agency always outranks a contract.
Start with the permanent work instead: read the 12 measures or find the trades who perform them.