Fire Defense Systems | Insurance solutions for wildland-urban interface risks

Reducing Your Wildfire Vulnerability. Empowering You with Knowledge and Protection.

Our Mission: To Protect Your Home, Family, and Community from Wildfire.

You Don't Have to Face the Wildfire Threat Alone

The threat of wildfire is more present than ever, but you don’t have to face it alone. Fire Defense Systems was founded by firefighters with a single, clear mission: to bring frontline, real-world wildfire experience directly to homeowners, HOAs, and communities.

We provide comprehensive wildfire risk assessments and actionable mitigation plans, empowering you with the knowledge and strategies needed to make your property resilient.

What Is a Professional Wildfire Risk Assessment?

A wildfire risk assessment from our team is the single most important step you can take to safeguard your property. This on-site evaluation analyzes every factor that contributes to your unique wildfire risk.

Home Ignition Zone Analysis

We inspect the critical space around your home, identifying flammable vegetation, landscaping features, and other potential fire fuel.

Structural Vulnerability Inspection

We examine roofing, siding, vents, decks, windows, and construction materials to identify areas that need hardening against embers and flames.

Topography and Fuel Load Evaluation

We assess slope, terrain, and surrounding vegetation to understand how wildfire could behave on your property.

A Clear, Actionable Roadmap to Resilience

Based on this in-depth analysis, we deliver a clear, prioritized mitigation plan. This is more than a report — it’s a step-by-step roadmap outlining defensible space creation, strategic home-hardening upgrades, and improvements that significantly increase your property’s ability to survive a wildfire.

Unlock Better Insurance Options and Secure Your Investment

In today’s challenging insurance market, a professional wildfire risk assessment is also a critical financial tool. Many insurance providers now require homeowners in high-risk areas to demonstrate proactive risk reduction.

A certified assessment and completed mitigation plan from Fire Defense Systems provide verifiable proof that meaningful steps have been taken to protect your property. This documentation may help secure or retain homeowner’s insurance and potentially lead to more favorable coverage options.

The Firefighter-Founded Difference

Our recommendations aren’t based on theory — they are forged from decades of frontline wildfire experience. As professional firefighters, we understand fire behavior firsthand and know what truly makes a difference when a wildfire threatens a community.

Our guidance is practical, realistic, and designed to help you move forward with confidence and clarity.

Ready to Build a Truly Resilient Property?

Take proactive steps to protect what matters most.

What to Expect

Subject Matter Expertise

Our experience spans wildfire operations, mitigation, and risk assessment, allowing us to tailor solutions to your specific needs.

Continuous Engagement

From start to finish, you’ll stay informed through clear communication and transparency.

Actionable
Solutions

We focus on real, attainable improvements — not just identifying problems.av

FAQ

What is Fire Defense Systems and what do you do?

Fire Defense Systems is a firefighter‑founded company focused on reducing your wildfire vulnerability and helping you protect your home, family, and community. We bring frontline, real‑world wildfire
experience directly to homeowners, HOAs, and communities in the wildland‑urban interface. Our core
service is providing comprehensive wildfire risk assessments and clear, actionable mitigation plans so you
know exactly what to do to make your property more resilient.

Why should I choose Fire Defense Systems over other mitigation companies?

Our biggest difference is experience and practicality. Our strategies are forged from decades of operational firefighting and wildland experience, not just theory or generic checklists.

We combine:

Subject matter expertise: Over a decade of hands-on fire operations, mitigation, and risk assessment.
Continuous engagement: You are never left in the dark; we keep you informed from the initial assessment through recommendations.
Actionable solutions: We don’t just point out problems—we give realistic, achievable steps to fix them.

Our goal is to give you a realistic roadmap to resilience that you can actually implement.

What exactly is a wildfire risk assessment?

A professional wildfire risk assessment is an on-site, detailed evaluation of how a wildfire is likely to interact with your specific property.

We go beyond a simple checklist and look at how your home, landscaping, and surrounding environment work together to increase or reduce risk.

The assessment results in a prioritized mitigation plan that shows you what to do first, what will have the biggest impact, and how to steadily improve your property’s survivability.

What do you look at during the assessment?

During a risk assessment, we typically evaluate:

Home Ignition Zone (HIZ)
We closely inspect the critical space around your home, identifying flammable vegetation, landscaping features, wood piles, and other potential fuel that could carry fire to your structure.

Structural Vulnerability
We review your home’s construction details—roofing, siding, decks, vents, windows, fences, and attachments—to find where embers or flames can get in or latch on. We then recommend specific hardening measures.

Topography and Fuel Load
We consider slope, aspect, surrounding vegetation, and how fire is likely to move across your land and neighboring areas. This helps us understand your property’s overall exposure and how to slow or redirect fire spread.

Our reports are tailored to your wants and needs. This is not an exhaustive list of what can be included.

All of this is synthesized into a clear report that you can use immediately.

What will I receive once the assessment is complete?

You receive a clear, prioritized, and actionable mitigation plan—not just a list of problems. It functions as a roadmap to resilience and typically includes:

A summary of your property’s main vulnerabilities and strengths
Step-by-step guidance on creating or improving defensible space
Specific home-hardening recommendations (e.g., vents, roofs, decks, windows, siding)
Prioritized action items so you know what to tackle first for the biggest risk reduction

The aim is to make it easy for you, your contractors, or your HOA to move from information to implementation.

Can a wildfire risk assessment help me with my insurance company?

Yes. In today’s challenging insurance market, many carriers require proof that you are actively reducing wildfire risk—especially in high-hazard areas.

A certified assessment and completed mitigation plan from Fire Defense Systems can:

Demonstrate to insurers that you have taken verifiable, professional steps to lower risk
Help you secure or retain coverage where it might otherwise be denied or dropped
Potentially support more favorable insurance terms, depending on your carrier’s policies

While we cannot guarantee specific insurance outcomes, our documentation is designed to support conversations with your insurer and show that you are proactively managing your wildfire exposure.

Do you only work with individual homeowners?

No. We work with:

Homeowners looking to protect a single residence
HOAs and communities seeking consistent mitigation strategies across multiple properties
Stakeholders and innovators developing wildfire-related technologies who need expert input or risk-based research

Our experience allows us to tailor solutions to different scales—from one home to entire neighborhoods.

Where do you provide wildfire risk assessments?

Fire Defense Systems is based in Colorado, and we have completed assessments in communities such as Aspen, Evergreen, Telluride, Placerville, Montrose, Grand Junction, and Idaho Springs.

These are examples of where we’ve worked—not limits to where we’re willing to go.

Do you only offer services in Colorado?

No. While Colorado is our home base and a major focus of our work, we offer remote assessments and reports nationwide.

Using photos, videos, maps, and structured questionnaires, we can provide a detailed, property-specific mitigation plan even if we’re not physically on site.

Will you travel for in-person assessments?

Yes. We are willing to travel for in-person assessments when the situation calls for it—whether for individual homeowners, HOAs, or communities in high-risk areas.

If you’re outside Colorado or in a region not listed, reach out and we’ll discuss the best option for your location.

What does “home hardening” mean?

Home hardening is the process of making your structure more resistant to ignition from embers, radiant heat, and direct flame contact.

Examples include:

Improving roofing materials
Screening vents
Modifying decks
Updating siding
Upgrading windows

During your assessment, we identify which specific changes will give you the greatest risk reduction for your particular home.

What is “defensible space” and why is it important?

Defensible space is the carefully managed area around your home designed to slow or stop fire and give firefighters a safer place to defend your property.

It typically involves:

Strategic vegetation management
Proper spacing between plants
Removal or relocation of flammable materials close to the house

Our assessment provides step-by-step defensible space recommendations tailored to your property.

Will I understand what you’re doing and why?

Absolutely. We pride ourselves on continuous engagement and transparency.

From the initial contact through the final mitigation plan, we explain what we’re seeing, why it matters, and what your options are. You’re encouraged to ask questions at every step.

You leave with both a written plan and a clear understanding of it.

I’m worried mitigation will be too expensive or complicated. Are your solutions practical?

Our approach is intentionally solution-oriented and realistic.

We:

Prioritize actions so you can start with the most impactful, cost-effective steps
Offer phased improvements or lower-cost alternatives when possible
Provide clear, plain-language explanations so you know what you can do yourself and what may require a contractor

Our goal is progress, not perfection. Even small, targeted changes can significantly improve your odds in a wildfire.

If I complete all your recommendations, is my home guaranteed to be safe?

No. No one can guarantee that a structure will survive every possible wildfire event.

Fire behavior is influenced by many changing factors, including weather, fuel conditions, and suppression resources.

What we can do is improve your property’s chances by:

Reducing ignition opportunities
Limiting available fuel
Making it safer and more feasible for firefighters to defend your property

Our mission is to give you the best possible odds and the peace of mind that you have done everything reasonably within your control.

How do I schedule a wildfire risk assessment?

Getting started is simple. Visit fire-defensesystems.com and use the “Get an Assessment” or “Learn More” options to contact us.

We’ll discuss your property, location, and goals, schedule an on-site visit, and walk you through what to expect. Then we deliver a clear, tailored plan for you to follow.

Is there anything I should prepare before the assessment?

No special preparation is required, but it can help to:

Make a list of your main concerns or questions
Note any past wildfire activity in your area
Gather relevant property information (e.g., recent remodels or roofing updates)

We handle the technical work. Your input simply helps us tailor the advice.

What is your philosophy about living with wildfire risk?

Our philosophy is that while wildfire risk is more present than ever, you do not have to face it alone—and you have more control than you might think.

By combining firefighter-grade knowledge with practical, step-by-step mitigation, we aim to:

Empower you with clear information instead of fear
Help you protect what matters most—your home, family, and community
Build long-term resilience so your property is better prepared for future fire seasons

We believe in turning uncertainty into a manageable, concrete action plan.

Assessment Locations

Aspen Evergreen Telluride Placerville Montrose Grand Junction Idaho Springs