Evacuation Lifted? Here's What to Check Before You Walk Back Into Your House

The Pico Fire broke out near Nuevo in Riverside County this week, burned through roughly 170 acres, and was reported at 99% containment within a day. That's the kind of outcome every wildfire story should have. But for the people who live on that property, "contained" isn't the end of the story — it's the start of a different one: the drive back, the moment you're standing at your own front door, and the question of whether it's actually safe to walk through it.

I didn't think about that moment at all until the 2018 Woolsey Fire burned through the hills near my home in West Hills. Most of the advice you hear beforehand is about evacuating — go bags, routes, timing. Almost nobody talks about the return. Going through CERT training afterward is where I actually learned what that part looks like, and it's not just "walk in and check for damage." A house that looks fine from the street can still be hiding something that isn't.

Before You Even Drive Back

The first checkpoint isn't your property, it's the official word. Fire officials, not a lifted evacuation order on the news ticker, are what confirm a specific area or address is safe to re-enter — those two things don't always happen at the same time. Keep a radio or your county's emergency alert app running on the drive in, because conditions can still change, and be mentally ready to turn around if they do. Roads near a burn area are their own hazard for a while: weakened trees, damaged power poles, debris, and washed-out shoulders don't wait for a press release to get dangerous.

Outside, Before You Touch the Door

This is the step people skip, and it's the one that matters most. Walk the outside of the house first:

• Look up before you look at the house. Trees and power poles that are charred deep, leaning, or stripped of branches on one side can fail with no warning — keep your distance and report anything that looks compromised rather than walking under it.
• Check the places embers hide, not just the places flame would show. Gutters, roof valleys, deck boards, crawl space vents, woodpiles, and anywhere debris collected are where a fire can keep smoldering quietly for hours after the main front has moved on. This is the same ember logic that makes Zone 0 — the clearance right against your structure — matter so much in the first place: it's rarely the wall of flame that gets a house, it's the thing smoldering in a corner nobody checked.
• Stay away from anything that looks like utility damage. Downed lines, a damaged gas meter, or a propane tank that's been exposed to heat are not a DIY inspection. If you smell gas anywhere near the meter or lines, leave the property and call the utility from a safe distance — don't go looking for the source yourself.
• Think about what's uphill, not just what's in front of you. A burned slope loses the root structure that normally holds soil in place, which means flash flooding and debris flows become a real risk with the next rain, sometimes long after the fire itself is old news.

Before You Go Inside

Once the outside looks stable, do one more pass before you cross the threshold. Check the roof, eaves, and vents with a flashlight rather than assuming daylight tells you everything. Confirm there's no gas smell near the meter. If the electrical meter itself looks damaged, don't restore power — that's a call for the utility or an electrician, not a breaker you flip yourself. The same goes for propane or heating oil systems that were anywhere near the fire: leave them off until someone qualified has looked at them.

Once You're Inside

Smoke and heat damage aren't always visible from the doorway. Look for sagging ceilings, cracked drywall, warped flooring, or any sign of water intrusion from firefighting efforts. Test your smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors before you assume they're working — a fire event is exactly the scenario they're supposed to catch, and exactly the scenario that can quietly disable them. Anything in the fridge or pantry that was exposed to extended heat, smoke, or a power outage should be thrown out rather than judged by smell alone. Open windows and doors to ventilate once you've confirmed the structure is sound, and photograph everything before you start moving or cleaning anything — your insurance claim depends on documentation you can't go back and recreate later.

What You Need to Know

• Wait for official confirmation, not just a lifted evacuation order. The two aren't always the same timeline — confirm your specific address is cleared before heading back.
• Walk the outside before you touch the door. Roof, gutters, decks, crawl spaces, and woodpiles are where embers hide longest.
• Gas and electrical damage are not DIY inspections. If you smell gas or see a damaged meter, leave and call the utility — don't restore power yourself if anything looks compromised.
• Burned slopes create a second hazard window. Watch for flood and debris-flow risk with the next rain, not just fire damage today.
• Photograph before you clean. Insurance documentation is much harder to recreate after the fact than to capture on the way in.
• Re-check daily for the first week or so, especially after any wind — a smoldering spot that looked out the day before can still flare up.
• This is general guidance, not a substitute for your local fire department or utility's specific instructions for your area — rules on re-entry and inspection requirements vary by jurisdiction.

Most of what makes a wildfire dangerous after the fact is the same thing that makes it dangerous during the fact: the stuff you don't see coming. A fire blanket in the garage won't help you with a damaged gas line, but it's exactly the right tool for the smoldering spot you find in a planter or a gutter on that first walk-through — the kind of small, contained problem you can put out yourself in the ten seconds before it becomes a bigger one.

See the Ace Fire Defense Fire Blanket 3-Pack — for exactly that moment →

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.