Red Flag Warning Just Went Up. Here's the 20-Minute Checklist I Run Before the Winds Hit
As I'm writing this, there's a Red Flag Warning in effect across LA and Ventura counties — Santa Ana winds gusting up to 70 mph, humidity in the single digits, the exact combination that turns a spark into a fast-moving fire in minutes instead of hours. This isn't a rare event. It's wildfire season doing what wildfire season does, usually a few times every fall. After the 2018 Woolsey Fire burned through the hills near my home in West Hills, I stopped treating these warnings as background noise on the news and started treating them as a cue to run a specific checklist, every single time. Here's the one I use.
Why a Red Flag Warning Is Different From a Normal Windy Day
The National Weather Service issues a Red Flag Warning when a specific combination shows up together: low relative humidity, sustained wind (often with much stronger gusts), and warm, dry conditions — the exact mix that lets a fire ignite easily and spread fast once it starts. It's not a prediction that a fire will start. It's a statement that if one does, conditions won't slow it down; they'll accelerate it. Wind-driven embers can travel well beyond where a normal fire would spread, which is a big part of why so many of the fires that become front-page news in Southern California — the ones with names everyone in this region remembers — started during exactly this kind of wind event. That history is the reason I don't wait until smoke is visible to get ready. By then, the easy window has already closed.
The Checklist: What I Run Before the Winds Arrive
- Walk your five-foot zone one more time. Clear anything that blew back in since your last check — dry leaves, loose mulch, patio cushions, doormats, anything combustible sitting against the house or under eaves.
- Pull your hose, valve, wrench, and nozzle out and connect them. Don't just confirm you own a kit — physically hook it together so you're not fumbling with couplings for the first time with wind already howling.
- Confirm your wrench actually fits your block's hydrant and that you know whether your city or water utility allows homeowner access to it before an emergency, not during one.
- If you're running off a pool or pump setup, top off the fuel and test-start it. A pump that hasn't been started in months is not a pump you want to be troubleshooting for the first time during a Red Flag event.
- Stage your N95 or respirator somewhere you'll actually grab it — nightstand, entryway, car — not in a box in the garage you won't remember in the moment.
- Charge phones, radios, and flashlights, and know your AQI resource (AirNow.gov or your local air district) in case smoke shows up before fire does.
- Review your evacuation zone and have your go-bag by the door. If you don't know your zone, look it up now — not when a notification is already telling you to move.
- Back vehicles into the driveway and keep keys accessible. Facing out saves time you won't have if you need to leave fast.
- Let your household and, if you have one, your CERT or neighborhood team know the warning is active. Coordination works a lot better when it starts before anyone's rushing.
What You Need to Know
- A Red Flag Warning is about conditions, not certainty. Most warnings pass without a fire starting near you — the goal is being ready regardless, not treating every warning as a guaranteed event.
- Practice this checklist on a calm day first. The first time you connect your hose and valve should not be the same day the wind is already gusting.
- Check your local rules on hydrant access before you rely on it. This varies by city and water utility — confirm with your fire department or water provider ahead of time.
- None of this replaces an evacuation order. Staging equipment buys you options; it is never a reason to stay once authorities tell you to go.
- Run the checklist every time a warning goes up, not just the first time. Conditions change season to season, and so does what's sitting in your five-foot zone.
Most of what's on this list costs nothing but twenty minutes — it's about making sure the equipment and the knowledge are both already in place before the wind makes that harder. The one piece worth having matched and ready in advance is the hydrant side of it: valve, hose, and wrench that actually work together instead of three separate purchases you're hoping fit.
Sherwin Ross is the founder of Ace Fire Defense, based in West Hills, CA. After the 2018 Woolsey Fire, he became CERT-trained and started building wildfire defense equipment for homeowners.