April 2026 Home Hardening Training for Building Professionals

This course will include sessions from UNR Extension staff and other experts, covering a wide range of topics related to wildfire risk reduction through increasing the fire resientance of a building through home hardening. In addition to perspectives from local fire fighters course speakers will include Christiana Restaino University Nevada Reno Assistant Professor and Nevada State Wildfire Specialists and Steve Quarles Advisor Emeritus University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources and Retired Chief Scientist for Wildfire and Durability, IBHS .

Whether you are a contractor, architect, City, County, HOA leader, or professional doing wildfire preparedness work, this one-day program will give participants a robust understanding of the role that home hardening plays in mitigating the wildfire risk to communities. It will also equip them with the knowledge of how to create and maintain effective home hardening in Nevada communities. Participants will have the opportunity to learn from experts in a classroom setting. They will then be able to apply the concepts and knowledge gained during a field site visit, putting theory into practice. Participants who complete this training will be listed on the Living With Fire website.

Cost: $50. Fees include food, course materials, certificates of attendance and Continuing Education Units.

8:00 – 9:10 Background Information on Wildfire and Home Hardening

• Welcome and Introduction to Fire
• Defensible Space and Home Hardening

9:20 – 10:20 Methods for Retrofitting Homes

• Best practices in reducing the fire risk of homes

10:30 – 11:30 Perspectives from local firefighters

• WUI and other required building codes
• What issues firefighters see the most
• Navigating Tahoe Regional Planning Authority Requirements.

11:30 – 12:30 Lunch

• Lunch provided

12:30 – 1:20 Aesthetic Design and Home Hardening

• Hear from Tahoe Based Architect on aesthetic and cost effective solutions

1:30 - 2:45 Firescaping Workshop.

• Classroom scenarios to apply concepts from the morning to common settings with feedback from speakers.

-Travel to field site-

3:00 – 4:00 Field Assessment

• Scenario: Draft work plans for the building in question
• Recieve feedback from experts on draft work plans

More details on the CEUs offered will be shared closer to the event date.

If you have any questions about this event, please email Spencer Eusden at [email protected].

An EEO/AA Institution. If you require a reasonable accommodation in order to participate in this event, please contact Paul Lessick, civil rights & compliance coordinator, at least 14 days prior to the scheduled event at 702-257-5577 or [email protected].

Funding for this event was made possible from the Bureau of Land Management, Nevada Division of Forestry, and U.S. Forest Service in cooperation with University of Nevada, Reno Extension along with fees from the training.

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