A regional partnership in West Santa Clara Valley brings together Los Gatos, Saratoga, the Santa Clara County Fire Department and the Santa Clara County FireSafe Council to coordinate wildfire preparedness. Roughly one quarter of residents in both Los Gatos and Saratoga live in the Wildland Urban Interface (WUI), increasing exposure where natural landscapes meet urban development. Local officials and organizations emphasized community responsibility and home hardening while federal funding stalls. The FireSafe Council demonstrated mitigation tools like a BurnBot vegetation masticator and highlighted N5 smoke sensors already deployed. Partnerships with Ororatech, San Jose Water, regional parks and NASA Ames support detection, mapping, ember analysis and vegetation clearing funded by $15 million in CalFire grants. Residents received practical guidance on making homes more fire resilient.
The partnership includes the governments of Los Gatos and Saratoga, the Santa Clara County Fire Department and the Santa Clara County FireSafe Council. About a quarter of Los Gatos residents and a quarter of Saratoga residents live in the Wildland Urban Interface, or WUI, where natural environments and urban infrastructure collide, making wildfire preparedness and response a hot topic.
Schalet demonstrated some new technologies to mitigate wildfire risks at the press conference, held at St. Joseph's Hill Preserve in Los Gatos. He introduced a BurnBot vegetation masticator, which breaks down large flammable materials to make them easy to clear. Schalet also pointed out N5 wildfire smoke sensors, of which a hundred are already installed in the county.
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