The Wildfire Preparedness Fair, a collaborative event sponsored by Wasatch Back homeowners associations, will return this month bigger than ever — and organizers say it’s especially poignant this year.
The event, scheduled for Saturday, April 25, at Ecker Hill Middle School, is hosted by 11 homeowner associations across Summit and Wasatch counties — up from seven last year.
“If I can pat ourselves on the back for a minute: We realized early that it really is a collective, community effort. It’s not just one HOA. We abut many others in our various communities, so it really is a collective effort. We’ve really doubled down on that notion for this year,” said Angie Kell, an organizer and Glenwild Homeowners Association member.
The event was held at Pinebrook Park last year, but with a better venue, organizers are planning a panel discussion to bring a variety of experts for a conversation.
“Last year, we just had some speakers kind of individually address their topics. This year, we’re doing a panel discussion that … I think is going to be incredible. So it’s a big step forward,” said organizer Pamela Nieroth.
Nieroth, who is part of the education and community outreach subcommittee of the wildfire committee for the Glenwild HOA, said last year’s fair was a chance to get their toes wet.
“We didn’t advertise it widely because we really weren’t sure how it was going to go, how many people we could accommodate,” said Nieroth. “We were so pleased with the results that, this year, we decided to really push the boundary a little bit more.”
A record low snowpack has heightened homeowners’ concerns about an active fire season in the Wasatch Back, especially as the community becomes more aware of the threat of wildfires. But recent legislation also makes the preparedness fair a relevant resource, said Pinebrook Fire Safety Committee Co-Chair Don Brown.
State lawmakers passed House Bill 48 last year in an attempt to mitigate wildfire risks in wildland urban interface areas, or WUIs: zones where human developments overlap open spaces relatively untouched by humans. In the 2026 legislative session, H.B. 41 extended the deadline to comply with last year’s law to Jan. 1, 2027.
The bulk of the legislation is directed toward homeowners, including a new annual fee between $20 and $100 for homeowners within a WUI, with the specific amount determined by the taxable square footage of the property.
The funds will go back to Utah Forestry, Fire and State Lands to pay for assessors, who will evaluate properties within the WUI to decide whether homeowners are complying with fire-resistant or “hardened” building requirements.
“I think House Bill 48, and subsequently House Bill 41, have brought an awareness that didn’t exist before. It’s good-intentioned legislation, but it’s going to create its own set of challenges for us to address,” Brown said.
And it’s introduced a lot of confusion, Nieroth said, which is why a big chunk of this year’s fair will focus on clarifying the requirements for the Wasatch Back.
“I think a lot of homeowners have questions about it, and we see this as an opportunity to hear directly from the folks who are knowledgeable: ‘Yes, you’ll need to do this. No, you won’t need to do that. How is the map going to work?’” Nieroth said. “It’s complicated, and there are lots of points of view, and we’d like people to have accurate information.”
Brown said his conversation with panelists should get into the weeds of the legislation. Six experts are invited to the discussion, including Paul Borrup, president of SentryWest Insurance Services; Peter Emery, fire chief of the Park City Fire District; Fielding Norton, executive director of the Wilkes Center for Climate Science and Policy; Taiga Rohrer of Utah Forestry, Fire and State Lands; David Telian of Alpine Forestry; and J. Bradley Washa of Utah State University.
Audience questions will also give attendees the chance to hear directly from industry professionals, and many will be available before and after the discussion for the tabling portion of the event.
Twenty groups will be set up in the lobby of Ecker Hill and ready to share information on home-hardening options or specific services.
Alpine Forestry, Sav-A-Tree, Apex Fire Protection, SentryWest Insurance Services, Biochar Collective, Summit County Emergency Management, Summit County Open Lands, Utah Open Lands, the Rowland Hall Climate Studies Program and the Wildfire Defense Mesh initiative are some participating organizations.
Kell said the goal is to provide local, readily available solutions for homeowners.
“Let’s say, what are five things that you can do to harden your home?” Kell said. “So we provide the what, and we’re going to provide the who, who can help you do that.”
She also said this year’s fair is intentionally designed to get younger kids involved, from a Girl Scouts-hosted kids station with wildfire-related coloring pages to a demonstration that gives kids the chance to use biochar as chalk. Students from the climate studies program at Rowland Hall will also present information from a school project during the event.
“We made a deliberate effort to cross the generational gap and start educating kids as to wildfire awareness,” she said, “as well as people who are actually doing the work.”
The event will run from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., and free bagels and cream cheese donated by The Bagel Den will be available in the morning. La Lupe and Chili Spot food trucks will also be on site for lunch. More details can be found on their website posting.
Kell said anyone is welcome to swing by — not just homeowners in participating neighborhoods — because preparedness is a whole community effort. It may sound obvious, but fire doesn’t care about property limits.
“Everyone recognizes Round Valley is powder already. It’s dirt. The dirt is super dry. And so I think the onus is on us with the wildfire fair to bridge that gap: OK, so what does that mean for you as a homeowner as we look toward wildfire season? And I think that’s really where the rubber meets the road,” Kell said.
It’s not a panic, but a call to action, Brown added.
“It’s not doom and gloom. It’s just another summer, but we are now paying attention,” he said. “And with this knowledge, this information, we can get ahead of the greater risk later by doing reasonable things now.”