Home / The guide / Fire and safety

Build a hazard register for the estate

List every hazard the estate faces, how likely it is and how bad it would be. This list drives every later safety decision and budget line.

How

1. Walk the land with the site survey and list natural hazards: wildfire, flood, storm and lightning, extreme heat, extreme cold, landslide on slopes.
2. List hazards your own systems create: batteries, wood stoves, LPG and fuel, generators, water tanks and ponds, machinery, animals, chemicals.
3. List people hazards: medical emergencies, injuries far from help, isolation when roads close, intruders or theft.
4. Score each hazard for likelihood (low, medium, high) and severity (minor, serious, life-threatening). Act first on anything high and life-threatening.
5. Check official hazard maps from your national or regional fire, flood and weather agencies, and ask the local fire service if the land is in a wildfire risk area.
6. Review the register every year and after any change to buildings, fuel or people living on site.

Do these first

• site-1

Sources

1. Defensible Space. CAL FIRE (Ready for Wildfire), accessed 2026-11
2. Defensible Space: Protection Against Wildfires. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Building America Solution Center (US DOE), accessed 2026-11
3. Build a Kit. Ready.gov (FEMA), accessed 2026-11

Open in the interactive guide