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We just moved from the Bay Area last year. This isn’t an area in the wilderness, it’s suburbia. This would be like if 600 homes on the edge of Fremont or San Jose burned.
Freak situation where we haven’t had rain in 3 months, winds were super high, temps were high for Dec, and it sounds like power lines went down. Unreal.
I'm wondering if fire-prone areas should be zoned to require fireproof building. No more wood homes/roofs. Europe generally doesn't use wood home construction, so doesn't seem crazy
If you’re reading this, I’d encourage you to look around and think about what you’d take and where you’d go if you had to leave right now.
I'm wondering if fire-prone areas should be zoned to require fireproof building. No more wood homes/roofs. Europe generally doesn't use wood home construction, so doesn't seem crazy
I’m not an expert in the matter, but I’ve heard that modern wood frames are just as good as steel frames. If the fire is close and strong enough to ignite a wood stud, the steel stud would already fail. Though would love input from an expert here.
Any sort of structure, wood or not, will withstand a huge radiant flux of energy before catching fire. Well, well beyond what will crispy fry a human, the siding may be charred, but it won't burn. Even wood siding tolerates a lot.
What lights houses on fire are firebrands - "burning crap from the sky." Trees, mostly, embers, other houses... that's what catches things. Typically it will light some small stuff near the house first, or in the corners of the roof (pine needles are a common enough fuel source). At that point, you've got a far harder problem - direct flame impingement. If you get to that point, you are usually screwed.
You can build fireproof roofs - I fully support pretty much anything in any areas requiring a Class A fireproof roof, which doesn't really mean much more than "being careful what you build, and not using wood shake." An asphalt shingle roof can often be Class A fireproof, and that tolerates a 2' x 2' bit of burning brand on the roof without burnthrough. The roof may not be in great shape, but an awful lot of "stuff on fire" can land on it, and if it's a properly constructed Class A roof, it won't penetrate to the building.
The landscaping around the building is a harder problem. Within 30' or so, it generally has to "not burn." This can be from design, or from sprinklers, or... whatever. If the landscaping within 30' of a house is on fire, the house is likely to follow. If you keep that from lighting, the house stands a pretty good chance.
... yes, this means that in suburbia, if the house next door is on fire, you're screwed. Don't live in such tightly packed spaces.
The next major problem are windows. If they fail, the house usually goes. They tolerate a lot, but in high wind storms, random debris can break the window, and then firebrands get in. Whoops. I would like to see some good studies on shutters, because they seem like the sort of thing that will make a very real difference on window breakage in storms, but they're not a thing anymore and probably won't come back.
But look at the debris patterns when you find the news articles of the burned out neighborhoods. Almost always, you'll see intact lawns and vegetation around a burned out foundation. It's not a "wall of flame" marching through the neighborhood - it's the firebrands, blown by the wind, that you have to defend against.
Unfortunately, when it comes to wildfires, when you've got things like 80 gusting 100, you're also just screwed. :/
I'm wondering if fire-prone areas should be zoned to require fireproof building. No more wood homes/roofs. Europe generally doesn't use wood home construction, so doesn't seem crazy
> if structures near fire-prone areas were designed and maintained to withstand fire, we might not need to fight some wildfires at all. https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/built-to-burn/ I think you might be getting downvoted for "fireproof" which sounds absolute, and is probably not realistic. But you're right that regulations should evolve to require responsible home design and maintenance in fire-prone areas!
If you want to understand wildfires, read everything he's written. He's basically the single handed Mythbusters of wildfire understanding, and has done things like "instrumented crown fires of test stands" to better understand radiant heat flux from actual fires.
I'm wondering if fire-prone areas should be zoned to require fireproof building. No more wood homes/roofs. Europe generally doesn't use wood home construction, so doesn't seem crazy
I’m not an expert in the matter, but I’ve heard that modern wood frames are just as good as steel frames. If the fire is close and strong enough to ignite a wood stud, the steel stud would already fail. Though would love input from an expert here.
Here is a photo of the current situation from central boulder. The 100mph wind gusts caused the fire to jump dozens of times. https://postimg.cc/CzdZ7Bqq