The Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety and Global Emergency Relief, Recovery & Reconstruction said they are working together to bring IBHS’ Wildfire Prepared Home designation program to households in Altadena, California, after the Eaton Fire.
The groups said initial post-fire retrofits and designations have been completed through GER3’s Eaton Wildfire Recovery Program. GER3 said it is working to mitigate more than 50 homes in Altadena and help eligible properties earn Wildfire Prepared Home designations.
Under the program, participants receive what GER3 described as 360-degree wildfire risk assessments and home upgrades at no cost. The organizations said the effort is aimed at improving neighborhood-level resilience and addressing insurance availability concerns after wildfire losses.
The partnership in Altadena aligns with recent IBHS work examining what drove losses in the same Los Angeles County fire complex. In its post-event investigation of the 2025 Los Angeles County fires, IBHS said it analyzed over 30,000 structures using a combination of field assessments and CAL FIRE’s Damage Inspection Program data.
“GER3's mission is to help communities recover stronger after a disaster,” said Calley Bilgram (pictured above), GER3’s Los Angeles recovery program lead. “By teaming up with IBHS and using their Wildfire Prepared Home designation program, we're able to make wildfire resilience achievable and affordable for Altadena residents.”
IBHS said the Wildfire Prepared Home designation program is based on wildfire research and is intended to reduce the chances a home ignites during a wildfire, including from wind-driven embers. The groups said the program focuses on a set of measures that work together, rather than a single retrofit.
The measures cited by the organizations include ember-resistant vents, a 5-foot noncombustible zone around the home and a Class A fire-rated roof. IBHS has said the program is designed around mitigation steps that can be applied to existing homes.
“The latest research shows these are the mitigation measures that can stop the progression of wildfire,” said Steve Hawks, senior director for wildfire at IBHS. He said partnering with GER3 is a way to apply the research in communities affected by fire.
