Los Angeles Wildfires: 2025
In January 2025, GER3 launched its first wildfire response and mitigation program in Los Angeles following the devastating fires across Southern California. Since then, our team has been working in Altadena to provide both early recovery support and long-term mitigation services.
Our early recovery services help residents return to safe, healthy homes through indoor environmental testing, smoke remediation, minor repairs, and certified soil testing with remediation recommendations. Our resilience services reduce wildfire risk and strengthen household preparedness through home hardening and the creation of defensible space. Across all activities, GER3 integrates advocacy and capacity building to catalyze community action, promote best practices, and support long-term recovery.
Beyond direct services, GER3 has been active in the Altadena community, participating in relief events and the Eaton Fire Collaborative, and partnering with impactful organizations such as the San Gabriel Valley Habitat for Humanity, Rebuild Altadena, and the Institute for Business and Home Safety (IBHS), among others.
wildfire property mitigation with GER3
Altadena: Here’s what your neighbors have to say about home hardening
GER3's Home Hardening program provides homeowners with some of the most effective, accessible upgrades homeowners can take to increase their structural wildfire resilience. These include the creation of defensible space, installation of ember-resistant mesh over exterior vents, and installation of noncombustible siding, among others.
By the end of our program, GER3 will have hardened a total of 60 homes in Altadena. Some residents in our program had prior awareness of home hardening, while others had little to no knowledge of home hardening.
Home hardening can feel overwhelming for some residents. However, these residents share some of the reasons they decided to commit to home hardening through GER3's program — from restoring their sense of safety as they continue living within and near the Eaton Fire burn scar, to increasing their insurability in wildfire risk zones, GER3's home hardening program has provided homeowners with a roadmap towards greater structural resilience and a knowledge base to be community advocates.
Creating A Defensible Space
A “Defensible Space” refers to a 0–5 feet area around a building’s perimeter home, completely cleared of all combustible materials, including vegetation, mulch, and native plants.
This area should remain entirely bare to prevent debris from accumulating near the home and potentially igniting during a wildfire event.
Creating defensible space is one of the most impactful forms of passive wildfire mitigation because it creates a clear barrier between the surrounding area and the structure. The objective of defensible space is to increase the survivability of the structure, this means that a home that has defensible space will take longer to catch fire and burn than a home that does not have defensible space. Defensible space has been noted to be especially impactful at reducing ember ignition; the cleared area leaves fewer places for debris to get stuck on thereby reducing the potential fuel source for embers.