If your Los Angeles home is in the canyons, foothills, or anywhere near wildland interface, fire season isn’t an abstract concern – it’s an annual reality that your household staff need to be actively prepared for. Every year from roughly June through November, the combination of dry conditions, Santa Ana winds, and proximity to brush means your property is at elevated risk, and your estate manager needs protocols that go beyond what’s required for homes in safer locations.
The challenge is that many household staff haven’t dealt with wildfire risk before, especially if they’re from other parts of the country or from lower-risk LA neighborhoods. They don’t automatically know what defensible space means, how to prepare a property for potential evacuation, or what to do when smoke fills the air and ash is falling on your pool. At Seaside Staffing Company, we work with families in Malibu, Pacific Palisades, Bel Air, and other high-risk areas to make sure their household staff understand fire season protocols before there’s an active emergency.
Defensible space is the most important concept your estate manager needs to understand. This is the buffer zone around your home where vegetation is cleared or managed to reduce fire risk. California law requires 100 feet of defensible space around homes in certain areas, and your estate manager should be coordinating with landscaping contractors to maintain this throughout fire season. Dead plants need to be removed immediately, not left until the monthly landscaping service gets around to it. Dry brush near structures needs to be cleared. Trees need to be properly trimmed. This isn’t aesthetic landscaping – it’s fire safety, and it requires constant vigilance from June through November.
Your house manager should have an evacuation checklist that’s been prepared in advance and updated annually. What are the most important documents and items to grab if you need to leave with 10 minutes notice? Where are they located? Who’s responsible for what if evacuation happens when you’re not home? Your staff need to know what to prioritize – important papers, valuable items, irreplaceable personal possessions – and they need to know where you keep emergency supplies. Creating this checklist shouldn’t happen when smoke is visible from your deck.
Air quality management becomes a significant issue during fire season even when fires aren’t directly threatening your property. Your housekeeper is dealing with ash that settles on everything, air filtration systems that need more frequent replacement, windows and doors that need to stay closed despite nice weather outside, and indoor air purifiers running constantly. When air quality is hazardous, your staff might need to shift schedules to avoid outdoor tasks or come in at different times to minimize exposure to dangerous air.
Your estate manager should have relationships with contractors who handle fire preparation services – gutter cleaning, vegetation management, ember-resistant vent installation, and property hardening that reduces fire risk. These services get booked up quickly when fire season approaches, so your staff need to be proactive about scheduling them in spring rather than waiting until June when everyone else is trying to book the same services.
At Seaside Staffing Company, we recommend families provide their household staff with emergency preparedness training specific to wildfire evacuation. What are the evacuation routes from your property? Where are the emergency meeting points? What do you do if you’re separated during an evacuation? How do you know when it’s time to leave versus time to shelter in place? Your staff need answers to these questions before there’s an emergency, not while they’re trying to figure it out with smoke in the air and sirens blaring.
Pool maintenance changes during fire season because pools can serve as water sources for firefighters. Your pool should be maintained and full throughout fire season, and your estate manager should make sure firefighters could access it if needed. Some families also keep a generator and pump system that could be used to wet down the property if fire threatens. These aren’t standard pool supplies – they’re fire safety equipment that your staff need to know exists and how to operate if needed.
Vehicle readiness matters more during fire season. Your staff should keep their cars in good working order with at least half a tank of gas at all times, because evacuation orders can come with very little notice. If your household employs drivers or if driving is part of any staff role, vehicles should be maintained to handle potentially long drives through heavy traffic or alternate routes if primary roads are blocked.
Alert systems and notifications need to be set up and monitored. Your estate manager should be signed up for local fire department alerts, Nixle emergency notifications, and any canyon or neighborhood emergency communication systems. They need to understand what different alert levels mean – are you under an evacuation warning or an evacuation order, and what’s the difference? When fires are active in your area, someone from your household staff should be actively monitoring conditions and ready to take action.
Communication protocols become critical. Who does your house manager notify if evacuation is likely? How do they reach you if you’re traveling? What’s the chain of command for decisions about evacuating or staying? These conversations need to happen before there’s an emergency. Your staff shouldn’t be trying to figure out how to reach you while also trying to prepare your property for potential evacuation.
Storage of flammable materials needs to be managed carefully. Your estate manager should know where gasoline, propane, paint, solvents, and other flammable materials are stored, and ideally these should be in locations away from structures and vegetation. During high fire danger periods, some of these materials might need to be removed from the property entirely or stored in fire-resistant locations.
Outdoor furniture and equipment that can fuel fires should be brought inside or moved away from structures during high fire danger periods. Your house manager should have a protocol for securing your outdoor spaces when fire risk is elevated – cushions brought in, umbrellas closed and stored, anything that could burn or blow around secured or removed. This should happen proactively based on weather conditions and fire alerts, not reactively after a fire starts nearby.
Your household staff need to understand that during active fire emergencies, their safety comes first. You’re not asking them to stay and defend your property if evacuation is ordered. You’re not expecting them to take unreasonable risks. Their job during an emergency is to follow protocols, help protect what they can in the time available, and get themselves to safety. Make this explicitly clear before fire season starts so they don’t feel obligated to be heroes.
Insurance and documentation become relevant. Your estate manager should know where you keep insurance policies, property inventories, and important documents. Some families keep fireproof safes or safety deposit boxes for this purpose, and your staff should know how to access them if they need to grab documents during evacuation. Photographing or videoing your property and possessions before fire season creates documentation that’s valuable if the worst happens.
At Seaside Staffing Company, we see significant variance in how prepared different households are for fire season. The families who do it well have annual fire season prep meetings with their staff in May, they update emergency plans, they verify that supplies and systems are ready, and they treat fire preparedness as a serious ongoing responsibility. The families who do it poorly assume it won’t happen to them, don’t prepare until there’s smoke in the air, and put their staff in the position of trying to improvise emergency response without clear direction.
Post-fire impacts can last for months even if your property wasn’t damaged. Air quality, vegetation recovery, increased mudslide risk in burnt areas, trauma and anxiety for staff who lived through evacuations – your household operations might be affected by fires long after they’re contained. Your estate manager might be coordinating with restoration contractors, managing increased property maintenance in fire-affected landscapes, or dealing with the psychological aftermath of living through fire season in a high-risk area.
For families hiring household staff in high-risk LA areas, be honest during hiring about fire season reality. Some candidates from other parts of the country might not fully understand what it means to work in a location where annual evacuation is a real possibility. For staff adapting to fire season protocols, understand that this is a serious responsibility that requires advance planning, regular training, and clear communication. The goal isn’t to create panic – it’s to create preparedness so that if fire threatens, everyone knows exactly what to do.
Living in beautiful canyon and hillside locations comes with genuine wildfire risk that can’t be ignored. Your household staff are on the front lines of property protection and emergency response when you’re not home, and equipping them with proper training, clear protocols, and necessary resources is essential. Fire season preparedness isn’t optional in high-risk LA neighborhoods – it’s a fundamental responsibility of household management that could save your property or your staff’s lives.
