Mohammed Bukhari

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Contact

04Wildfire preparedness

EmberSafe

A small ivory porcelain house standing inside a gilt ring.

Top team in its track

Berkeley Civic Innovation Challenge, a one-week sprint

EmberSafe was the top team in the wildfire track of the Berkeley Civic Innovation Challenge. In one week we knocked on doors in the Berkeley Hills and built a prototype to help residents prepare for new wildfire rules.

Role
Product and prototype
Team
Five UC Berkeley students
When
A one-week sprint, February 2026
Made
A wildfire-prep prototype for Berkeley Hills homes

Status Top team in the wildfire track. Demo with illustrative risk estimates.

Context

In February 2026 the City of Berkeley brought five of its problems to campus for a one-week sprint, the Berkeley Civic Innovation Challenge. Our team of five took wildfire.

New Zone 0 rules ask Berkeley Hills residents to keep the five feet around their homes free of most plants and wood, and many did not know where to start.

The decision

A teammate and I began by knocking on doors in the Berkeley Hills. As I told Berkeleyside in February 2026, "Honestly, it wasn’t pretty." People felt the city was imposing on them, not protecting them. "Whenever people see people with uniforms, they just shut down."

So we designed EmberSafe around trust, from the community to the community, instead of around enforcement.

What we built

A prototype website for the people we met on those doorsteps: a tool built around the needs our customer discovery found. A resident answers a short set of multiple-choice questions, sees an estimated risk level, and watches it drop as they tick off changes around the home. The estimates were illustrative.

We gathered feedback on it through public group demos. Adoption in Sonoma County is planned.

EmberSafe prototype result screen: a wildfire risk estimate ring at 52 percent, two of three suggested actions checked off, and the line You’ve reduced your risk by 28%.
Student prototype, February 2026. Risk estimates are illustrative. Not affiliated with the City of Berkeley.
Code to comeThe code behind the EmberSafe prototype website.A link to its repository, with keys and private data removed.

Outcome

  • Top team, Disaster Resilience & Wildfire Risk Reduction track, Berkeley Civic Innovation Challenge.

    SourceOrganizer’s email, February 5, 2026

  • One of five teams, out of 15, to pitch at Berkeley SkyDeck on February 6, 2026. Two other teams shared the grand prize.

    SourceOrganizer’s email; Berkeley News, February 13, 2026; Big Ideas newsletter, February 17, 2026

  • Berkeleyside named and quoted me in its story on the challenge.

    SourceBerkeleyside, February 17, 2026

  • Afterwards a Firewise neighborhood group offered to test the site, and we were invited to a wildfire focus group with a city councilmember and the fire department.

    SourceBig Ideas emails, March 16 and April 17, 2026

  • Feedback gathered through public group demos. Adoption in Sonoma County is planned.

    SourceMohammed Bukhari’s résumé, October 2026

Proposed, not yet done

  • Neighbor-led block parties to launch it.

  • A fire-safe certificate for homes that meet the rules.

  • A tool that shows residents a fire-safe version of their own garden.

Links

Credits

Press
Berkeleyside, February 17, 2026