Hatti Hamlin stripped her Sleepy Hollow yard down to one native tree and rebuilt it as a fire-resistant garden that the Firewise Network says blooms nearly year-round.
Hamlin, a member of the Sleepy Hollow Firewise neighborhood, has lived in the same Orinda home for 35 years. Her overhaul, profiled in the Moraga-Orinda Firewise Network's latest newsletter, started with ripping out overgrown plants and replacing everything within five feet of the house with gravel to create a non-combustible buffer.
That five-foot zone matters. The Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety estimates 90% of homes lost in wildfires are ignited by embers, and a non-combustible perimeter can cut ignition risk in half.
Hamlin planted native, pollinator-friendly species in one- and two-gallon containers to keep costs low. She filled gaps with succulent cuttings from friends and neighbors.
By planting strategically from the street inward, the gravel buffer closest to the house became invisible from the curb. The newsletter describes her yard as a haven for birds and bees.
The profile lands ahead of a major local wildfire event. The City of Orinda will host "Safe at Scale," a screening of the PBS documentary "Weathered: After the LA Firestorm" followed by an expert panel, at 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 29, at the Orinda Theatre. The event runs until 9:30 p.m. The panel includes MOFD Fire Chief Jeff Isaacs, state Sen. Tim Grayson, Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan, documentary director Trip Jennings and Steve Hawks of the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety.
In a June 2026 written response to a resident's wildfire-modeling questions submitted to the MOFD Board of Directors, Isaacs stressed that embers can travel ahead of the main fire front and ignite vegetation, decks, fences, mulch and other combustible materials around homes, and that burning structures can become additional ember sources.
The Moraga-Orinda Fire District (MOFD) has been scaling up its programs. In 2025, community wildfire safety ambassadors completed 538 home assessments, more than double the prior year's total, according to the Firewise Network. The district's Home Hardening Grant Program provided 485 residents with gutter guards, 193 with vent mesh and 20 with reimbursement for ember-resistant vents.
The Chipper Program served more than 310 residences. The network listed more than 4,000 homes across its Firewise neighborhoods in Moraga and Orinda as of January 2026.
Orinda residents interested in following Hamlin's lead can request a wildfire safety assessment through MOFD or apply for matching funds through the city's Measure R Fire Fuels Reduction Incentive Pilot Program.
