Wildfires across the United States have taken more than 100 lives and cost more than $25 billion in property losses in the last two years. The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) and State Farm are helping communities take steps toward safety with their national Wildfire Community Preparedness Day (Preparedness Day) event on Saturday, May 4, 2019.
Preparedness Day serves as an opportunity for residents to participate in wildfire safety activities. Thanks to the generous support from State Farm, 150 communities across 27 states will receive project funding awards of $500 each to support activities on Preparedness Day aimed at reducing potential loss of life, property, and natural resources to wildfire.
"Since NFPA and State Farm first partnered together on Preparedness Day, the number of projects has grown tremendously. We are pleased to provide 150 communities with a grant to fund their wildfire risk reduction activities on May 4," said Vickie Hodges, P&C underwriting analyst, State Farm. "For State Farm, the largest home insurer in the U.S., it is important to us to take a leadership role in helping homeowners stay safe and better protect their property."
Recent wildfire events make the need for Preparedness Day more important than ever before. Last year, California wildfires burned nearly one million acres, the largest amount of burned acreage recorded in a fire season. Several other states that experienced large fires in 2018 including Nevada, Utah, and Oklahoma, are putting the U.S. on pace to exceed the average acreage burned annually over the past 10 years.
"NFPA and State Farm are pleased to be working together on the Preparedness Day campaign," said Lorraine Carli, NFPA vice president of Outreach and Advocacy. "Since our initial launch of Prep Day in 2013, participation has continued to grow. We are inspired by the number of residents who feel empowered to take the necessary steps to keep their homes and neighborhoods safer from wildfire."
There is still time to take action and NFPA and State Farm encourage people to get involved by planning a project and participating on May 4. Download a free Getting Started: Wildfire Community Preparedness Day Toolkit.
For more information about national Wildfire Community Preparedness Day including resources, videos, and tip sheets, and to see the list of winning projects and their locations, visit www.wildfireprepday.org.
For this release and other announcements about NFPA initiatives, research and resources, please visit the NFPA press room.
About State Farm
The mission of State Farm is to help people manage the risks of everyday life, recover from the unexpected, and realize their dreams. State Farm and its affiliates are the largest providers of auto and home insurance in the United States. Its nearly 19,000 agents and approximately 58,000 employees serve approximately 83 million policies and accounts – approximately 81 million auto, fire, life, health and commercial policies and approximately 2 million bank accounts. Commercial auto insurance, along with coverage for renters, business owners, boats and motorcycles, is available. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company is the parent of the State Farm family of companies. State Farm is ranked No. 36 on the 2018 Fortune 500 list of largest companies. For more information, please visit http://www.statefarm.com.
About the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA)
Founded in 1896, NFPA is a global, nonprofit organization devoted to eliminating death, injury, property and economic loss due to fire, electrical and related hazards. The association delivers information and knowledge through more than 300 consensus codes and standards, research, training, education, outreach and advocacy; and by partnering with others who share an interest in furthering the NFPA mission. For more information visit www.nfpa.org. All NFPA codes and standards can be viewed online for free at www.nfpa.org/freeaccess.
