A credible wildfire property assessment should do more than identify obvious hazards. It should document the property as a complete operating environment, establish measurable design inputs, rank risk by consequence and urgency, and produce a clear path from current conditions to verified mitigation.
What WAG Property Assessment Standards are designed to accomplish
The WAG assessment standard is intended to create a consistent, property-specific basis for wildfire planning, budgeting, design coordination and long-term readiness. It is not a generic checklist, a sales visit or a substitute for engineering where engineering is required.
A complete assessment should help the owner understand:
- How wildfire can approach and affect the property
- Which structures, systems and site features are most exposed
- Which deficiencies create the greatest near-term risk
- Which improvements should be completed first
- Which projects depend on water, power, access, permitting or design work
- How mitigation can be phased without creating disconnected or incompatible work
Assessment independence and scope clarity
The assessment scope should be defined before the site visit. The owner should know which structures, parcels, water sources, access routes and operating systems are included.
The assessor should distinguish between:
- Observed conditions
- Owner-provided information
- Measured data
- Documented assumptions
- Items requiring specialist verification
- Items outside the assessment scope
Recommendations should be based on documented conditions and risk, not on a predetermined equipment package.
Required property and stakeholder information
Before fieldwork begins, the assessor should collect the best available information for the property, including:
- Property boundaries and site plans
- Structure locations and uses
- Existing wildfire reports or mitigation plans
- Building plans and renovation history
- Water-source and utility information
- Existing active protection system documents
- Insurance requests or prior inspection findings
- HOA, district or jurisdictional requirements
- Owner priorities, occupancy patterns and operational constraints
Site documentation standards
Field documentation should be sufficient for another qualified reviewer to understand the property without relying entirely on memory or verbal explanation.
Depending on project complexity, documentation may include:
- Georeferenced site photography
- 360-degree imagery or digital twins
- Drone imagery where appropriate and permitted
- Structure elevations and exposure photos
- Access-route measurements
- Water-source locations
- Equipment and utility locations
- Topographic, slope and vegetation observations
- Annotated maps identifying deficiencies and opportunities
Photographs should be labeled by location, orientation and subject. Critical findings should not be represented by unlabeled image galleries.
Wildfire exposure and fire-behavior assessment
The assessment should evaluate how fire, heat and embers may reach the property. This includes more than measuring defensible-space distances.
Relevant conditions may include:
- Likely fire approach directions
- Prevailing and terrain-driven wind
- Upslope fire behavior
- Drainages, saddles and chimney effects
- Adjacent open space and unmanaged vegetation
- Neighboring structures and shared exposures
- Long-range ember pathways
- Areas where suppression access may be limited
Structure-by-structure evaluation
Each included structure should be evaluated separately. A large property should not receive one generalized conclusion that overlooks differences between the main residence, guest house, barn, garage, utility building or remote outbuilding.
The structure review should address:
- Roof coverings and roof geometry
- Gutters, valleys and debris traps
- Vents and openings
- Eaves, soffits and fascia
- Siding and wall assemblies
- Windows, doors and glazing exposure
- Decks, balconies and under-deck areas
- Attached fences and combustible transitions
- Mechanical equipment and penetrations
- Combustible storage near the structure
Zone 0 and immediate structure interface
The first five feet around each structure should receive a dedicated review because small combustible details in this area can defeat larger landscape efforts.
The assessment should document:
- Combustible mulch and groundcover
- Vegetation touching or overhanging the structure
- Wood piles and stored materials
- Combustible fencing connections
- Outdoor furniture and seasonal items
- Leaf and needle accumulation
- Planters, mats and decorative materials
- Under-deck and crawlspace exposures
Landscape, vegetation and fuel continuity
The landscape assessment should evaluate arrangement and continuity, not simply plant species.
Key considerations include:
- Horizontal and vertical fuel continuity
- Tree spacing and canopy relationships
- Ladder fuels
- Shrub massing near structures
- Dead and down material
- Vegetation beneath decks and overhangs
- Fuel islands and separation
- Irrigation coverage and maintenance condition
- Seasonal drying and neglected areas
Access and emergency response conditions
The property should be evaluated for evacuation, emergency access, service access and equipment mobilization.
The assessment should review:
- Driveway width, grade, surface and clearance
- Turnarounds and vehicle staging
- Bridge, culvert or weight limitations
- Gate operation during power loss
- Address visibility
- Locked access and emergency entry procedures
- Vegetation encroachment
- Competing vehicle routes during evacuation
- Access to water sources and system equipment
Water-source assessment
Water availability should be measured and documented rather than assumed. The assessment should identify every potentially relevant source and the limitations associated with each.
Possible sources include:
- Dedicated cisterns
- Wells
- Ponds and open water
- Swimming pools
- Irrigation storage
- Municipal or district service where permitted
- Mobile or supplemental water
For each source, the assessment should consider usable volume, refill rate, seasonal reliability, water quality, filtration needs, elevation, access, freeze exposure and competing demands.
Hydraulic design inputs
When active wildfire protection is being considered, the assessment should establish the field data needed for later hydraulic design.
This may include:
- Source elevation
- Structure and discharge-point elevations
- Estimated route lengths
- Existing pipe sizes and materials
- Available static and dynamic pressure
- Sustained well output
- Required flow and runtime assumptions
- Potential pressure zones
- Likely pump and equipment locations
The assessment should clearly identify when flow testing, pump testing or engineering is still required.
Power and resilience assessment
Active protection systems, gates, wells, pumps, controls and communications may all depend on power. The assessment should document both normal and emergency power conditions.
Items to review include:
- Electrical service size and available capacity
- Panel and equipment locations
- Single-phase or three-phase availability
- Generator capacity and transfer arrangements
- Battery or inverter systems
- Fuel storage and runtime
- Altitude derating
- Startup and inrush requirements
- Critical loads that compete during an outage
Existing wildfire system condition
When an active wildfire system already exists, the assessment should determine whether it is documented, serviceable and capable of operating as intended.
The review should include:
- Available design documents and as-builts
- Water-source condition
- Pump and control equipment
- Valves, nodes and discharge devices
- Filtration
- Freeze protection
- Primary and backup power
- Communications and remote operation
- Inspection and maintenance history
- Commissioning and performance records
A visual inspection alone should not be represented as proof of hydraulic or integrated performance.
Field measurement and verification
Measured values should be used where they materially affect recommendations. Estimates may be used for preliminary planning, but they should be labeled as estimates.
Common field measurements may include:
- Distances and elevations
- Driveway geometry
- Static and dynamic water pressure
- Flow rates
- Tank levels and usable storage
- Electrical ratings
- Equipment nameplate information
- Pipe sizes
- Valve and nozzle counts
- Communications signal availability
Deficiency classification
Findings should be classified so the owner can understand urgency and consequence. A simple undifferentiated punch list is not sufficient for complex properties.
A useful classification framework is:
- Critical: A condition that may create immediate life-safety, access or system-readiness concerns
- High: A major exposure or failure point that should be corrected before the next wildfire season
- Moderate: A meaningful weakness that should be included in near-term mitigation planning
- Routine: Maintenance, documentation or lower-consequence improvement work
- Verification required: A condition that cannot be responsibly resolved without testing, records or specialist review
Recommendation standards
Each recommendation should identify:
- The condition being addressed
- The reason it matters
- The recommended corrective action
- The responsible trade or discipline
- Dependencies and prerequisites
- Priority and suggested phase
- Required testing or acceptance criteria
- Known assumptions or unresolved questions
Recommendations should avoid unsupported claims that an improvement will make a property fireproof or guarantee insurance acceptance.
Good, Better and Best assessment levels
Good: Baseline Property Assessment
- Structured site walk
- Representative photography
- Structure and landscape observations
- High-level access, water and power review
- Priority deficiency list
- Conceptual mitigation phases
Better: Technical Property Assessment
- Expanded measured field data
- Detailed structure-by-structure findings
- Annotated site maps
- Water and power feasibility review
- Existing system condition assessment
- Budget-level project sequencing
- Clear specialist and engineering requirements
Best: Estate or Portfolio Resilience Assessment
- Comprehensive digital property record
- Multiple structures and operational assets
- Topographic and exposure mapping
- Measured hydraulic and power inputs
- Emergency-access and operating-plan integration
- Phased capital plan
- Owner, property manager and design-team coordination
- Future commissioning, maintenance and insurance documentation framework
Required assessment deliverables
A complete WAG-standard assessment should produce a usable decision document rather than a collection of field notes.
Typical deliverables include:
- Executive summary
- Property and structure inventory
- Assessment scope and limitations
- Site and exposure overview
- Documented findings
- Photographic evidence
- Annotated maps or plans
- Prioritized recommendations
- Good, Better and Best strategy options where appropriate
- Phased implementation plan
- Testing, design and engineering requirements
- Next-step decision points
Quality-control review
Before release, the assessment should be checked for internal consistency. Recommendations should align with the documented conditions, maps, measurements and stated scope.
The quality-control review should confirm:
- All included structures were addressed
- Critical findings are easy to locate
- Measurements and units are consistent
- Assumptions are labeled
- Photographs match the findings they support
- Recommendations do not conflict
- Dependencies are identified
- Items requiring professional design are not presented as final designs
Assessment validity and reassessment
A wildfire property assessment reflects conditions at a specific point in time. Vegetation growth, renovations, utility changes, new neighboring construction, system modifications and wildfire events can materially change the conclusions.
Reassessment should be considered after:
- Major construction or landscape work
- Installation or modification of an active system
- Changes to water or power infrastructure
- A nearby wildfire or direct property exposure
- Significant storm, freeze or equipment damage
- Changes in ownership or property management
- New insurance or jurisdictional requirements
Common assessment mistakes
- Using a generic checklist without property-specific analysis
- Recommending equipment before documenting the risk
- Ignoring water, power and access constraints
- Treating all structures as one exposure
- Failing to distinguish measured data from assumptions
- Providing recommendations without sequencing or dependencies
- Omitting neighboring-property exposure
- Representing visual inspection as system performance verification
- Failing to create an owner-usable final report
WAG Property Assessment checklist
- Scope and included assets are defined
- Owner priorities and operating constraints are documented
- Property records are collected and reviewed
- Site photography and mapping are organized
- Wildfire approach and ember exposure are evaluated
- Each structure is reviewed separately
- Zone 0 and landscape fuel continuity are documented
- Access, gates and addressing are evaluated
- Water sources are identified and limitations documented
- Power and backup-power conditions are reviewed
- Existing protection systems are evaluated
- Critical measurements are recorded
- Findings are classified by urgency
- Recommendations include dependencies and acceptance criteria
- Mitigation is organized into practical phases
- The final report receives quality-control review
Technical FAQs
Is a WAG Property Assessment an engineering design?
No. It establishes property-specific conditions, priorities and design inputs. Engineering, hydraulic design, electrical design and permitting may still be required for specific improvements.
Can the assessment be used to compare contractor proposals?
Yes. A well-developed assessment creates a common basis for comparing scope, assumptions, protected assets, water strategy, power requirements and project sequencing.
Does the assessment guarantee insurance approval?
No. It can improve the quality and organization of property documentation, but underwriting decisions remain with the insurer.
Should an assessment include cost estimates?
Budget-level ranges can be useful for phasing and decision-making, but they should be identified as planning estimates unless supported by detailed design and current contractor pricing.
How long should an assessment remain valid?
There is no universal expiration period. It should be reviewed whenever material property conditions change and periodically as part of the property's wildfire readiness program.
Start with a property-specific baseline
A strong wildfire strategy begins with a documented understanding of the property. WAG Property Assessment Standards are designed to turn scattered concerns into a prioritized, technically useful plan for owners, property managers, design teams and contractors.