Quincy Firewise welcomes Liam Galleher and Rick Foster tonight

February 22, 2023 Editor

Submitted by Sally McGowan

The Quincy Firewise meeting will be held this Wednesday evening, Feb. 22 at 5 p.m. at the West End Theatre inside Quintopia. This month’s speaker is Liam Galleher, staff member for the Plumas County Fire Safe Council (PCFSC) who coordinates the Fire Safe Home Visit Program. As a grassroots organization, the PCFSC’s mission is to reduce losses from wildfire through pre-fire activities by assessing the community’s needs and filling them accordingly. In August 2022, PCFSC began the Fire Safe Home visit program to help identify those needs. This program offers personal, no-cost consultations on home hardening, defensible space, and forest health. Residents who sign up for a Fire Safe Home Visit will receive a non-enforced report with suggestions to reduce the fire hazard on their property.

The Fire Safe Home Visit program is the first of its kind out of Fire Safe Councils in California. It utilizes unique software that offers educational resources and personal roadmaps for wildfire mitigation. We invite you to hear Liam speak about his software innovation as a nonprofit and discuss notable statistics from the program thus far.

Liam has worked for the PCFSC since January 2022. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Ecosystem Management and Forestry from UC Berkeley and has spent his professional career at the intersection of applied ecology and landowner communications. Liam has experience working with landowners through the House of Representatives and Dodd Lab at UC Berkeley. Liam is proud of Plumas County residents’ sense of personal responsibility, and is hopeful that it will be the driver of long-term ecological change.

Rick Foster, Quincy resident and property owner, will share his experiences with having Greg Kinne along with other Quincy Firewise volunteers work on his property to reduce wildfire risk as part of the Forest Knolls neighborhood wildfire mitigation project. Rick is interested in documenting through video the strategic and far reaching work of the volunteers in their efforts to diminish the threat of wildfire to homes and surrounding forests within the Quincy Firewise Community.

Quincy Firewise is a local volunteer group making efforts to create a more fire aware and fire prepared community. We invite all Quincy residents, including those from surrounding areas and other Firewise Communities, to join us the last Wednesday of every month from 5-6 pm at the West End Theater inside Quintopia. In addition to monthly guest speakers, we provide up to date information on home/property insurance, evacuation preparedness, home hardening tips, and home ignition zone design.

When: Wednesday, February 22 from 5-6 pm (meetings are scheduled the 4th Wednesday of every month)

Where: West End Theatre inside of Quintopia