Fire Safety News

As we approach another high risk wildfire season our best protection is based on what we do now. The Tollgate Firewise Committee is offering neighbors a day with the experts to gather information and the tools necessary to save our homes and our neighborhood by working together.

The Human Library will be only one part of this years’ Firewise Rally on National Firewise Day, May 7, 2022. The festival-like event kicks off on Friday, May 5, with a film on the impact of destructive wildfires, followed by the Rally on Saturday, May 6 from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at the old Firehouse near the pickleball courts.

The Human Library is very much like a regular library where people go to check out books. The only difference is that the “books” are all volunteers who have chosen to speak to a small group of people about their unique first hand experiences dealing with a wildfire event. This is interactive so there’s room to ask and answer questions during the 15 minute checkout period.

The Human Library will accept registrations online and at the start of the Rally
from 10:00-11:00am.

Between 11:00am-1:00pm you may check out up to all four different wildfire related stories on a preregistration basis. (No dropins to disrupt the story flow).

Each story will be offered twice an hour, if enrollment warrants it, with time to do other festival activities in between. Out of respect for the storyteller’s time, the Librarian reserves the right to close later sessions if preregistration numbers don’t meet a minimum so we encourage you to reserve your “books” early.

Human Library Book Jackets:

Firewise Happenings

Neighbors in more than 90 properties have signed up for a variety of options, including home fire-risk assessments, training to be a volunteer home assessor, participating in the common area cleanup work, and asking for help with limbing, trimming and chipping. All of this work will help make our community more “Firewise,” so thank you to those who are pitching in! Firewise welcomes questions about the projects and looks forward to more requests for Firewise assessments or any of our other projects. Please email Firewise directly: Firewise@tollgatepropertyowners.com.

Firewise News from the Summer of 2022:

WILDFIRE RISK ASSESSMENTS: We had more than 60 requests for home assessments, which began in June. As of October, over 55 assessments have been completed. If you haven’t yet scheduled yours, please contact Firewise@tollgatepropertyowners.com. Fall, winter and are great times to get started on your hardening your home in advance of next year’s fire season. While it’s great to have homeowners present during the short one hour assessment, it’s not a requirement. Second-home owners are also encouraged to have an assessment conducted. You’ll receive a thorough written report, complete with photos, with recommendations on how to make your valuable investment less prone to wildfire.

VOLUNTEER FIREWISE ASSESSORS: A dozen of your Tollgate neighbors have been trained as volunteer Firewise Assessors and are ready to help identify areas of your property that could be made safer in the event of a wildfire.

COMMON AREA CLEAN-UP: The Tollgate dump trailer is available to use to clean up the pine cone, needle and seedling buildup on the common area. The Tollgate maintenance staff will deliver, pick up and dump the contents of the trailer at no charge to you. Click on this link to sign up for the Dump Trailer.

TRIMMING, LIMBING AND CHIPPING (TLC): Firewise had over 20 requests for this work, which was paid for by a grant secured by the Firewise committee for TPOA. The work was completed in July and August 2022 by 4 Brothers Tree Service, which has extensive experience here in Tollgate. The crews took care of all the work, including hauling the debris and running the chipper.

HELPFUL HINTS AND TIPS: A bounty of useful information on how to make our homes more fire-resistant, take care of pets, plan for evacuations, etc., is available throughout this TPOA website. You’ll also find some background information on Firewise under the Fire Safety tab, so please check it out.

VOLUNTEERS ARE ALWAYS WELCOME: We always need a few more volunteers to help pull all this off! Please let us know if you can help with organizing or anything at all! Send a note to firewise@tollgatepropertyowners.com and we’ll get back in touch right away. As always, we appreciate your patience and understanding as we get all this important work underway for our community!

Here is a link to an excellent panel discussion on Building Resiliency into Living with Wildfire, hosted by the City Club of Central Oregon. The panelists have some good ideas to offer, including a warning about potential power outages that may come from the utility companies:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3E_ekyLEMyY

This year, 17 neighborhoods in 11 Oregon cities and towns (including Sisters) were awarded $500 each in a nationally competitive process to assist with wildfire prevention projects to mark Wildfire Community Preparedness Day on May 7. 

Read the full article here.

Your Tollgate Firewise Committee met today to train the fabulous volunteers (your neighbors) to help at Friday’s Movie Night – Fire In Paradise, doors open at 7:15 p.m. in the Community Room and Saturday’s Rally from 10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m in the Commons near the swimming pool. Firetrucks, information from insurance companies, kids activities, homeowner information on protecting your home, human “library” – stories about wildfire experiences. Don’t miss out on this great event.

More about the movie here.

A new article in the Sisters Nugget newspaper outlining changes in the insurance industry regarding wildfires and home insurance coverage.

Fires imperil homeowner’s insurance in Sisters Country