The Sedona Fire District will be holding its 21st annual Wildfire Preparedness Event to allow residents to dispose of their yard waste free of charge in order to clear space around their homes at the start of the wildfire season. 

The free dropoffs will take place on Saturday and Sunday, April 27 and 28, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 6657 State Route 179 in the Village of Oak Creek. Another set of dropoffs will take place on May 4 and 5 at West Sedona School from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

“We’ll take all the brush you want to clean up at your yards,” SFD Fire Inspector Kirk Riddell said to the nonprofit Big Park Regional Coordinating Council during its April 11 meeting. “We don’t want cactus, we don’t want anything that’s not brush, brush tree limbs, your stuff you rake up off your yard, just clean it all up, bag it, bring it to us, no charge.”

The dropoffs will not accept appliances, household items, batteries or treated lumber and materials will only be accepted during the designated event hours.

At the same BPRCC meeting, council members also presented the results of their anecdotal survey of VOC residents that asked about their wildfire concerns, their experiences with their insurance rates with regards to wildfire risk and their concerns about the proposed new Arizona Public Service powerline through the VOC that has been delayed until the end of the year.

Nearly 16% of the 246 survey respondents said that their insurance rates had increased in recent years because of wildfire risk, with 61% of respondents saying that they were somewhat or very concerned about future cancellation or non-renewal of the insurance because of perceived risk from wildfire.

“We can’t control the insurance company,” Riddell said. “But we can probably try to make them see that we are firewise, and we’re not the big risks they think we are. But, the only way to do that is to make your homes more firewise.”

Firewise is a national program that works to prevent home ignitions caused by wildfire by encouraging simple solutions like cleaning up brush.

“[Creating] defensible space is what it’s all about,” Riddell said. “The first zero to five feet from your home [should be] well-hydrated, low-growing vegetation [that’s] nice and green. Try to keep the trees out of that space if you can. If you do have any trees within that zone or further out from that zone, [trim] them up so they’re not over your roof or under your eaves.”

SFD also conducts free fire risk assessments for private residences or homeowners associations that can be arranged by calling (928) 204-8926.

“We come out and we take a look for the collection of debris, areas of improvement that could improve the resiliency to wildfire,” SFD Division Chief of Community Risk Reduction Dori Booth said. “So anywhere embers might collect or you have a collection of leaves and pine needles, looking for attic vents and things that are open for putting in the eighth-inch mesh to make sure that embers get broken up and they don’t enter the home.”