November 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, including home hardening to increase a building's fire resistance. In addition to perspectives from local firefighters, the course speakers will include Matt Gage, co-founder of MitigateNow 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, or HOA leader, or a professional doing wildfire preparedness work, this one-day program will give participants a robust understanding of the role home hardening plays in mitigating 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

11:30 – 12:30 Lunch

• Lunch provided

12:30 – 1:20 Making home hardening work for your business

• Hear from Mitigate Now staff on strategies for making home hardening work economically viable for your business.

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

Continuing Education Units Offered

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 seusden@unr.edu.

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 PLessick@unr.edu.

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.