If you live in MOFD's service area — Moraga, Orinda, or Canyon — your fire district is currently footing the bill for four of the most useful home-hardening and defensible-space upgrades you can do this year. None of them require an inspector. None of them require a contractor. And the headline grant program runs through June 30, 2026, so the calendar is the only thing standing between you and a quieter ember season.
Three of these four programs are direct hits on what we call the Big Three — the highest-leverage home-hardening moves you can make. Free isn't usually how that math works.
Here's what's on offer, who qualifies, and how to sign up.
1. Free Stainless-Steel Gutter Coverings
Your gutters are one of the most reliable ways for an ember to start a fire on your house. They collect dry needles, oak leaves, and the kind of fine debris that only needs a single glowing spark to ignite — and they do it where your roof, eaves, and siding all meet. Clean gutters help. A non-combustible gutter cover that physically blocks debris helps more.
MOFD's Home Hardening Grant Program ships stainless-steel gutter coverings to your address — free — through June 30, 2026. The product is designed to keep combustible material out of the gutter and to slow the surface spread of flame if embers do land in the trough.
Who qualifies: All residents within MOFD's jurisdiction (Moraga, Orinda, Canyon).
What you get: Free gutter covers in the quantity your home needs. MOFD provides an online measuring tool to figure out how much to order. Delivery is typically within 30 days, pending material availability.
Logistics: Self-install (or hire your own installer at your cost — the grant covers materials only, not labor). Material must be installed at the delivery address within six months of receipt.
Sign up: MOFD Gutter Guard order form
2. Free Ember-Resistant Vent Screens
Vents are the second of "the Big Three" — roof, vents, defensible space — for a reason. An ember finds an unscreened or improperly-screened attic vent, lands on insulation or stored cardboard, and you have a fire from inside the wall. The fix is mesh fine enough to keep embers out (1/16" or 1/8" depending on the application) and rated to the right standard.
MOFD's grant covers two paths:
- Free vent mesh shipped to your address, OR
- Up to $1,000 reimbursement per parcel for qualifying ember-resistant vents you purchase and install yourself
To qualify for reimbursement, the vents must meet California Building Code Section 7A or California Residential Code R337 — specifically, OSFM Building Materials Listing Category 8165 (Vents for Wildland Urban Interface). Reimbursement covers the vents and sales tax — not installation, labor, hardware, or caulk.
Who qualifies: All MOFD residents.
Deadline: June 30, 2026 for both shipped mesh and reimbursement applications.
Sign up: MOFD Vent Mesh order form
If you want to go deeper on what makes a vent "ember-resistant" and which retrofit options actually work, see our vent screening playbook.
3. Free Brush Chipping (Chipper Program)
You did the work — you cleared back the broom, the lower limbs, the volunteer pines crowding the driveway. Now you have a pile. MOFD will come to you and chip it.
What you get: Free roadside chipping of limbs, brush, shrubs, and small trees up to 6" diameter.
Excluded: grass, hay, leaves, palm fronds, items over 80 lbs, anything with staples, nails, barbed wire, vines, or poison oak. (The chipper crew can't safely process those.)
How to pile: Within 10 feet of the roadside, off the pavement, not blocking traffic or sight lines, not on a steep hillside, and no more than 4 feet tall.
How it works: Submit the request form. The Fuels Mitigation Manager contacts you with a scheduled pickup date. The crew chips at the curb.
When to request: Year-round, but demand spikes pre-fire-season — request now for May or June scheduling.
Sign up: MOFD Chipper Request Form
For a deeper dive on tree work, ladder fuels, and when to bring in an arborist, see our tree trimming playbook.
4. Broom Puller Loan Program
French broom is the invasive that keeps on giving — once it sets seed, you're fighting it for a decade. The window to pull it cleanly is right now, while the spring soil is still moist and before the plants finish setting seed.
The catch: hand-pulling mature broom is brutal. The roots hold. The branches snap. By the third plant, you're done.
A broom puller is a mechanical leverage tool that grips the stem at ground level and uses a long handle to lever the entire root ball out of the soil. It turns a knock-down fight into a 30-second job.
MOFD will loan you one. Ask, pull, return.
Who qualifies: MOFD residents. The tool is also loaned out for community broom-pulling events.
When to use it: Spring — moist soil, before seed production. That window is open right now and closes fast.
Sign up: MOFD Broom Puller Request Form
For help identifying which plants to prioritize on your property, see our flammable species field guide for Lamorinda.
Why this matters
The Big Three home-hardening upgrades — gutters, vents, defensible space — are also the highest-leverage things you can do for your insurance standing and your house's odds during an ember storm. MOFD has put real money on the table to make the first two free and the second two basically painless. The grant program runs out on June 30, 2026.
If you have been waiting for "the right time" to do this work, the right time is now. Pick one program this week. Sign up. The forms take five minutes.
Steve will be implementing each of these on his own home in the coming weeks and filming the process — watch the site for the case-study series.
Continue Learning
- The Big Three: Roof, Vents & Defensible Space — the framework these programs map to
- Defensible Space Zones: 0-1-2 — what each zone actually requires
- Home Hardening Checklist — room-by-room sequence
- How We Used EBMUD Rebates to Build a Fire-Resilient Front Yard — Steve's case study using a different free-money program for the same purpose
Sources: MOFD Home Hardening Grant Program | Free Gutter Coverings news release | Protect Your Home with Free Gutter Guards and Ember-Resistant Vents news release | MOFD Chipper Program | MOFD Broom Puller Request