Sign up for emergency alerts
Sign up to receive emergency alerts and severe weather warnings that could directly impact you and your family.
Cochise County will send alerts via text message, email (the most complete info), pager, or voice call. This service allows fire, police and other emergency response agencies to issue emergency alerts to warn citizens of events such as severe weather, fire, flooding, hazardous materials, need for immediate evacuation, civil danger, local area emergencies, and missing persons.
If you are already signed up, consider helping a relative or neighbor to do so.
make your house number visible
Can you see your home’s address number from the street?
If you can’t, neither can the fire department!
Trim overgrown vegetation covering or blocking the numbers to help first responders find you ASAP.
HELP OTHERS
Help relatives or neighbors who may not be tech savvy to enter emergency numbers into their cell phones.
plan an alternate route out of YOUR neighborhood
Locate alternate routes out of your neighborhood (other than the one normally used): consider a route on foot. Bisbee residents have found regular exit routes blocked in past emergencies. Plan and practice a family evacuation drill using alternate routes.
PHOTOGRAPH POSSESSIONS
Take video and photos of your possessions NOW so you’ll have documentation to help replace belongings in case of an insurance loss. Walk slowly through your home and video or photograph each room.
rake 5 feet around the house
Rake and remove pine needles and dry leaves within 5 feet from your home’s foundation. Over time, expand up to 30 feet if possible.
SWEEP PORCHES AND DECKS
Sweep off porches and decks, clearing them of leaves and pine needles. Rake under decks, porches, sheds, and play structures.
CREATE AN EVACUATION BAG
Put together a list of “go bag” of items you can’t live without and bring it with you in any emergency or evacuation. Items to consider: cell phone, cash, prescriptions, passport/ID, paperwork (insurance, licenses, titles), pet supplies.
PRACTICE assembling these items: you will find you can reduce the time once you’ve done it a time or two.
Trim Low Branches
To protect mature trees, use hand pruners and loppers to remove low-hanging tree branches up to a height of 4 feet from the ground. The goal is to prevent fire from "laddering" from grass (or other plants which grow below trees) into the canopy.
Move Wood Piles From the House
If firewood is stored closer than 30 feet, move it farther away from structures if possible.
Clean Under Porches and Decks
Remove items stored under decks and porches and relocate them to a storage area. Gasoline cans and portable propane tanks should never be stored indoors or near the home. Screen or box-in areas below patios and decks with wire screening (no larger than 1/8-inch mesh) to help keep embers out during a wildfire.