There was a super story in Fine Homebuilding about why that house survived while neighboring houses didn't. See "Fire-Resistant Details." There is a lot that goes into fire-resistant design beyond xeriscape and a defensible perimeter.
Note to Californians - fire resistant xeriscape landscaping; fireproof roofs.
I have always wondered whether it would be possible to create a simple and economical system to quickly cover a house with several feet of fireproof foam in an emergency. If you could get such a system to work, people would buy it.
Fire proof metal and tile roofs are already pretty big in California. There are a lot of options. If you have a couple extra bucks, Slate works pretty good as well.
Good idea...
There was a super story in Fine Homebuilding about why that house survived while neighboring houses didn't. See "Fire-Resistant Details." There is a lot that goes into fire-resistant design beyond xeriscape and a defensible perimeter.
In the huge Laguna Beach Fire of 1993 one house survived in a neighborhood where every other house burned down. And 441 total did burn down.
It had been designed by a Japanese man for his parents and he used simple design elements that anyone could do.
You have to keep embers from entering the attic space, and keep superheated air from collecting under eaves and igniting the roof.
So he had minimal eaves, and vents that keep embers out. No exposed wooden beams to catch fire and let flames enter the structure that way.
Those are the design elements that I recall... he may also have had shutters to keep heat from transmitting through the windows and igniting drapes and furniture, but I don’t recall if he did.
We should require this in homes built along SoCal ridge lines. Otherwise they are just fuel when the 50 ft flame front of a brush fire comes their way.