Builders study LA homes that survived blazes

Architects and builders worldwide exchange tips on fire-resistant building materials and techniques to protect homes from wildfires.

Emails and videos of burned buildings in Los Angeles next to those left standing have been flying back and forth among architects, builders, and fire safety specialists around the world.

Many experts say luck plays a part. After all, winds can shift 180º in a second, pushing fire away from one house and towards a neighbour’s. But they also say there are many ways homes can be made less vulnerable.

Greg Faulkner of Faulkner Architects in California said there is a finite number of ways a fire can burn a house. “If you eliminate half of those, or three-quarters of them, that’s not luck, that’s increasing your odds.”

People in fire country generally know that trees, landscaping, and wood fences near homes can be a fire risk. Architects and contractors are going beyond that, using newer materials and techniques in roofing, walls, and windows to keep buildings standing. The measures can add as much as 10% to the cost of homes.

Many of these experts no longer use wood siding. Where it is used, or still allowed, it needs to have a fire-resistant barrier underneath, often made of gypsum.

Stucco, a cement material, is fire-resistant. Arnold Tarling, who inspected buildings for four decades in Britain, said houses with stucco walls appeared to survive the fires better. Yet if more of them had had a layer of gypsum underneath, it would have given more protection from the heat, he said.

Double-pane windows also significantly slow heat coming from the burning building next door. Tarling noted that one Malibu beachfront home, surrounded by gutted buildings, was intact because no windows faced a neighbor, so radiated heat couldn’t penetrate it as easily.