Using this site, and our updates

Who we are

The Austin Area Firewise Alliance is an independent volunteer organization in Travis County, Texas, at P.O. Box 4211-A, Austin, TX 78731. We are not a government agency, and we are not the City of Austin, the Austin Fire Department, Hays, Travis, or Williamson County, or any Emergency Services District.

This is not an emergency service

In a fire emergency, call 911. Nothing on this site, and no message we send, is an official emergency notification. Official alerts for this region come from Warn Central Texas, and evacuation orders come from the agency with authority over your address. Do not wait for anything from us, and do not rely on us to tell you to leave.

What the guidance here is, and is not

The preparedness information on this site follows Firewise USA® and National Fire Protection Association practice. It is general guidance written for a wide audience. It is not a site assessment of your property, not a professional opinion about your house, and not a substitute for what your own fire department tells you.

Your property, your vegetation, your access road and your local rules are yours to judge. Work of this kind — clearing brush, working at height, using a chainsaw, burning anything — carries real risk, and you take it on. We provide this site as it is, without warranty, and to the extent the law allows we are not liable for loss or damage arising from its use.

Links to other organizations

We point at the agencies that actually run things — the fire departments, the county, the state forest service, NFPA. We do not control those sites and are not responsible for what they say or do. Where the two disagree, the agency is right and we are out of date.

Email and text updates

Signing up is optional and asks for your agreement before anything is sent. Here is what you are agreeing to.

• What you get. Preparedness reminders ahead of fire season, meeting and event notices, Firewise recognition news, and answers when agencies respond to our questions. Occasionally, a message about a fast-moving local situation.
• How often. Message frequency varies. In an ordinary month expect a handful at most; in an active fire season, more.
• Confirming. Nothing is sent until you confirm — by the link we email you, or the code we text you. Unconfirmed details are deleted after seven days.
• Stopping. Reply STOP to any text to stop texts. Reply HELP for help, START to resume. Every email carries an unsubscribe link. You can also change how we contact you at any time on the manage page.
• Cost. We charge nothing. Message and data rates may apply, as with any message you receive, and carriers are not liable for delayed or undelivered messages.
• Who sees your details. Your information is never sold, and never shared for anyone else's marketing. What we keep and why is set out in the privacy statement.
• Give us your own contact details. Sign up with an address or number that is yours. Do not enter somebody else's.

Editing the site

Board members have accounts for the editing area. Those accounts are personal: do not share a password, and tell us if you think somebody else has yours. We can suspend an account that is misused or no longer needed.

Our material, and other people's

The words and pictures we write are ours, and you are welcome to quote or print them for non-commercial preparedness use with credit to the Alliance. Material we link to or reproduce from an agency belongs to that agency under its own terms. Firewise USA® is a registered program of the National Fire Protection Association; we take part in it and do not speak for it.

Changes

We may update these terms as the site changes. The date at the top says when they last changed. Continuing to use the site, or staying on the list, means the current version applies.

Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Texas.

Questions

Write to us at P.O. Box 4211-A, Austin, TX 78731, or use the contact details on the About page. For anything urgent about a fire, call 911 instead.