An important part of the American Red Cross mission is to help people prepare for and reduce losses from disaster. Red Cross has educational programs and material in place covering hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, earthquakes, structure fires and other disasters. Red Cross is doing more toward the mitigation of wildfire (including recovery), as it is one of the most common disasters in the western states.

American Red Cross volunteers are trained by our fire agency partners to help fill the gap in fire prevention and mitigation personnel. A national memorandum of understanding brought about in 2003 defines this partnership and the role of the Red Cross volunteers. In essence, Red Cross volunteers are the arms, legs and voices for the agencies to help reach the residents and property owners in the wildland-urban interface.

View Dealing with Wildfires, in Flash (most browsers can read Flash - for older browsers, download a Flash reader free at Macromedia's web site. This PowerPoint slide show was converted to Flash courtesy of Dreamingsoft, Inc. with their software "PowerPoint to Flash."

View PowerPoint slide show, "Dealing with Wildfires."  Please note, viewing this slide shows requires that you have PowerPoint installed in your computer. In addition, the slide show is large (8 MB) and is best downloaded with high-speed Internet access (DSL, Cable).

Download brochure "Living with Fire - a Guide for the Homeowner" in .pdf format - a publication to help people living in the Wildland/Urban Interface create "defensible space." Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Download brochure "Preparing a Community Wildlife Protection Plan - a Handbook for Wildland Urban Interface Communities" in .pdf format - the steps people can take to develop a Community Wildfire Protection Plan for their neighborhood and community. Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Arkansas Forestry Commission - responsible for the protection of 19,727,978 acres of non-federal forestland in Arkansas. Wildfires occur in every month of the year, but are most prevalent in the spring and late summer.