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To: JRandomFreeper
drop one flaming pan of cooking oil in the kitchen, and you can write that house off

Not exactly. I've been doing fire restoration work for some decades. The most common fire cause is the kitchen fire, very often exactly what you describe. What burns is the cabinets and other fixtures, and the fire seldom spreads beyond the kitchen, though the smoke certainly does!

In most cases, the damage will be identical whether the frame is wood or block.

23 posted on 09/16/2014 3:24:15 PM PDT by Sherman Logan (Perception wins most of the battles. Reality wins ALL the wars.)
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To: Sherman Logan; JRandomFreeper

Well said! Wood frame houses can burn, but if built against fire hazards, won’t be as likely to burn. Besides firestops between first floor and above and other measures, concrete slab foundations can be helpful, too.

Problem is, many county jurisdictions in northern rural areas forbid frost-protected, shallow foundations (e.g., for installing PEX tubing for solar heating systems), and they forbid such designs without any good cause.

There are also compressed earth blocks, but the engineering/inspector racket stands in the way.


34 posted on 09/16/2014 5:37:39 PM PDT by familyop (We Baby Boomers are croaking in an avalanche of corruption smelled around the planet.)
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