Super high wind. I saw a detached wooden garage with leaves in gutter barely singed while main burned to dust. Accompanying vineyard had all the vines still attached to the wire, but the bases at the ground were burned through like you took a plasma torch to them (uncut dry grasses in the rows.)
Across street a stone house burned to shell, and adjacent 1/2 finished wood frame was untouched. Apparently an intact home with older roof/attic ventilation would “suck” embers in where it was calm enough to get fire established, then as soon as it burned through to exterior wind the whole structure would be consumed in minutes.
Some really BS radical code changed are being considered in the aftermath of this, up to eliminating wood from building (disaster in the making there economically). Modifying roof ventilation and enforcing defensible space clearing would have prevented or vastly ameliorated a lot of these fires effects.
Some really BS radical code changed are being considered in the aftermath of this, up to eliminating wood from building (disaster in the making there economically). Modifying roof ventilation and enforcing defensible space clearing would have prevented or vastly ameliorated a lot of these fires effects.
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What instead of wood? All the plastics, vinyls and other modern materials in house building are rendering them much more toxic when burning (and living in). OSB too, tons of formaldehyde glue, a lot of its weight. Harder to put out, too. Better to use brick, stone or adobe, but what about framing? Metal?