Shelter & Warmth
Roof, heat, dry.
Three months is the duration that lets the household harden the structure — vents, decking, eaves — and build out the clean-room infrastructure.
The shelter & warmth domain →Wildfire 3-month system
A 3-month wildfire-season system — defensible space, structure hardening, indoor air infrastructure, and the household routines that run May through October.
Three months of wildfire readiness is the fire-season posture for households in the wildland-urban interface. The work runs from May through October and decides whether your house survives an ember storm and whether your household survives two weeks of AQI 200+ air. The 72-hour list is reactive; the 3-month system is the structure of the year. Defensible space gets cleared in spring. Structure hardening happens off-season. Indoor air infrastructure is built once and maintained continuously.
The load-bearing domains
What this combination actually depends on
Every event–duration combination weights the nine domains differently. Here are the two or three that decide the outcome for this one.
Health & First Aid
Care when help is far.
An entire fire season of intermittent smoke is health infrastructure: HEPA, masks, inhalers, baselines, monitoring.
The health & first aid domain →Communication
Stay in contact.
Three months means a household-wide comms plan, including evacuation triggers, rendezvous points, and out-of-area contacts that run all season.
The communication domain →The 3 months list
Check items off as you go. Progress is stored in your browser only — nothing is uploaded. Hit Print for a clean paper copy or Reset to start over.
0 of 10 completeitems complete
Your progress is saved in this browser only — nothing is uploaded. Clear it any time with Reset, or hit Print for a clean paper copy.
Common questions
Questions that come up
What's the noncombustible zone around a house and why does it matter?
Zone 0 — the first 5 feet around the structure — should be entirely noncombustible: gravel, concrete, pavers, well-irrigated lawn. No wood mulch, no combustible decking, no firewood, no flammable plants. Embers landing in Zone 0 should not find fuel. This is the single highest-leverage defensible-space improvement and it costs more in landscape change than in dollars.
How do I keep my house breathable during a long smoke event?
Three layers: HVAC filtration upgraded to MERV-13 or higher, standalone HEPA purifiers in main rooms (sized by CADR to room size), and a sealed envelope (weatherstripped doors, sealed gaps, no open windows). Run continuously when AQI exceeds 100. A whole-house HEPA system is the high-end version; standalone HEPA plus MERV-13 covers most households.
What does it take to harden a house against wildfire?
The high-leverage items: ember-resistant vents (1/8-inch mesh), Class A roofing, noncombustible Zone 0 (first 5 ft), enclosed eaves, double-pane tempered windows, replaced combustible decking within 5 ft, no firewood against siding, removed ladder fuels in Zone 2. Most older houses can be brought to a defensible state for $5,000–15,000 over a few years of off-season work.
Working on wildfire evacuation? One newsletter every other Sunday. No spam. No selling your data. Unsubscribe any time.
Get the starter pack — in your inbox.
The 72-hour starter pack PDF, plus one new piece every other Sunday. We focus on the wildfire evacuation scenarios households actually face — sized to where you are on the ladder.
- The 72-hour starter pack PDF, immediately.
- Follow-ups that track wildfire evacuation and related events as they come up.
- No upsells, no data sold, one-click unsubscribe.
Same event, different scope
Other wildfire evacuation durations
Same scope, different event
The 3-month version for other events
Run the numbers
How much water and food, exactly, for this duration
The list above tells you what to stock. The calculators below tell you how much — sized to your household and this duration.
Go deeper