About
A wildfire consulting and communications practice.
XMR Fire is led by principal Todd Lando, a battalion chief and wildfire mitigation specialist. We pair wildfire prevention on the field side with the websites, hosting, and internal systems emergency-services organizations rely on, and bring in additional specialists as projects require. We are based in Montana and California and serve the western US.
Principal
Todd Lando
Todd Lando is a battalion chief and professional firefighter in Northern California and a Marin County native, with more than 36 years in the fire service. He has planned wildfire prevention for property owners, builders, communities, and agencies across the western US, and has built websites for the fire service since 1998.
He named the ember-resistant zone "Zone 0" (also called "Zone Zero") and has been a leading voice in its statewide adoption, pushing the concept to the forefront of community and parcel-level wildfire mitigation. Zone 0, the five feet closest to a home, is the area research identifies as the single biggest factor in whether a structure survives a wildfire. He worked both the front lines and the planning side of the fires that changed how the fire service treats the wildland-urban interface (WUI), including the 1991 Oakland and Berkeley Hills Tunnel Fire, the 2017 North Bay fires, and the 2018 Camp and Thomas Fires.
He learned local planning and vegetation management as a Fire and Fuels Management Specialist at Urban Forestry Associates, bringing GIS, web, and database work to the fire prevention side. He is an NFPA (National Fire Protection Association) Certified Wildfire Mitigation Specialist, has served as executive director of two of the earliest fire safe councils in the country (Fire Safe San Mateo County and Fire Safe Marin), and serves on California's Wildfire Mitigation Advisory Committee, which advises the state on wildfire preparedness and mitigation.
He studied Forestry and Wildfire Management at the University of Montana and holds a bachelor's degree in Environmental Studies and Urban Planning, with an emphasis in Natural Resources Conservation and Restoration, from Sonoma State University. His background also runs through graphic and web design and journalism, which is where the communications side of the practice comes from.
- 36 yearsIn the fire service
- Battalion ChiefNorthern California
- Zone 0Named it; leads its adoption
- NFPA CWMSCertified Wildfire Mitigation Specialist
- Since 1998Building for the fire service
- State advisorCA Wildfire Mitigation Advisory Committee
How we work
Direct, credible, and built to last.
- We start from field conditions and build the plan or the system around them. A plan a client can fund and act on is worth more than a polished document that goes unused.
- Clients keep control of their own infrastructure. We do not transfer your DNS, credentials, or accounts to outside parties, and we do not lock you in. Your domains and your data stay yours.
- Technical work is performed in the US and is not offshored. Clients work directly with the principal and the specialists assigned to their project.
- Sensitive operational detail stays out of public-facing material. Internal specifics stay internal.
Who we serve
From a single home to a full agency.
The wildfire practice serves property owners and the professionals who design and build for them. The communications practice serves fire and emergency services agencies. The two share clients often enough that it helps to work with a single practice that understands both the field and the technology.
Contact
Get in touch.
Wildfire consulting for a home, project, or program, or communications and web work for an agency. Send the details and we will scope the work.
Polebridge, MT 59928 Hours 8am–5pm Pacific, Mon–Fri