California Brush Fires Destroy Homes Without Steel Roofs

Elaine Meinel Supkis

The annual burning of many houses in California now commences. This is a totally avoidable situation but greedy developers coupled with careless homeowners create firehazards. The State of California has an obligation to prevent these houses from burning but they won't pass proper housing codes so it goes on and on, every year, the same old story.

I grew up out west and all my childhood, we had these Santa Ana winds when March arrives.

By ANA BEATRIZ CHOLO, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 54 minutes ago

ANAHEIM, Calif. - A fast-moving brush fire scorched 500 acres of parched hillside and crept into backyards Sunday, forcing authorities to evacuate more than 200 homes, Orange County fire officials said.

At least two homes in Anaheim's Hidden Canyon neighborhood were on fire and many others were threatened, Anaheim city spokesman John J. Nicoletti said.

"This is a very dangerous firefight," said Orange County Fire Authority Chief Ed Fleming. "The terrain is quite rugged, with homes on top of ridges, and the fire picks up speed as it head up the hill."

Very hot, very dry air comes pouring out of Death Valley. When I was a child, we would stand in the headwinds and open our jackets to act as parachutes and it would lift us off the ground. In the drier parts of the desert, all we get is this wind. But California has much more rain along the coast so when the super-dry winds blow, human carelessness or accidents spark vast fires. I believe this latest example was started by a car fire at a toll booth.

By the way, do note how toll booths are rapidly spreading across America. They cause pollution and aggravation and cars do catch on fire at them, I had that happen to me in Manhattan at the George Washington Bridge many years ago! Oh, how I hate toll booths.

California is getting drier in general as global warming progesses in fits and starts.

Latest Seasonal Assessment - Short-term improvement is expected in much of California and Nevada, but cumulative rain and snow remains far behind normal for the water year starting last October, stacking the odds against receiving enough precipitation in coming months to offset the large deficits. In California, statewide water-year precipitation as of mid-February was running 55% of normal and Sierra snowpack was 48% of normal. In contrast, groundwater levels were near normal due to recent wet years and reservoir storage was at 110% of normal. The pattern was also looking somewhat wetter for the short term in Arizona, but the odds favor no significant change in drought status there. Texas should see some improvement going into May, but probably not enough to end the long-running drought there.

For the last three years, I have feared a spring drought up here in upstate New York. Last winter, not only did it barely snow, spring came hot and hard and it was never below zero so the insects came pouring out of the woodwork...literally. I spent many days trying to save my trees. This year we finally had a somewhat normal winter though December was like October.

It was below zero for a number of days and we had several feet of good snow. The ground is saturated and the snow is now melting and I have visions of flowers and happy trees. But California is different. It has the hottest desert in America: Death Valley. And a gigantic population. And the humans have build their homes all over vulnerable mountainsides surrounded by dry brush and stunted pine trees that are perfect fire fodder. These plants absolutely thrive on brush fires. Brush fires are their natural environment.

Some plants can't germinate unless there is a fire! So humans have to live with this and if the state allows builders to build where ever, then they better have some sane building standards or we will see these tragedies over and over again.

For years and years, I have said, build only steel roofs.

Fire season is here and California residents are encouraged to take preventive measures against the cyclical threat of fire destruction. Cutting back brush and limiting outdoor fires are critical, yet does not ensure that neighbors share the same proactive attitude. A home's best defense is the right roofing material.

Choosing a "Class A" fire-code rated roofing material such as stone-coated steel could make all the difference once the flames start to roar and embers begin to jump rooftops. Fire-susceptible materials like wood and asphalt shingles can ignite, turning entire homes into piles of ash.

Stone-coated roofs resist fire, create structural integrity when earthquakes occur, act as an energy-saving barrier and provide an array of aesthetically pleasing designs that increase the value of the home.

Asphalt shingles are made out of a byproduct of...oil. Gah. So no matter what they are covered with, they will catch on fire. And steel roofs don't collapse in earthquakes. So why isn't this the ONLY roofs allowed? Huh?

Politics. The people making and selling dangerous, stupid roofing materials for that climate grease the palms of politicians and the game goes on and on and on. Home buyers should insist on better roofs but they don't. I often fix roofs and have installed many a steel roof. 'If the roof goes, the house follows it down to destruction,' I tell people. Heh.

Here is a wonderful webpage with lots of good information for homeowners insisting on living in dangerous places:

Fence materials such as cinder block or stuccoed cement are better than wood, especially if you live at the base of a hill, since they can stop rolling embers. Homeowner Betsy Evatt believes that wood fences helped spread the fire in the Amber Ridge development of San Diego's Scripps Ranch, where her home (pictured top left) is one of the few still standing. Most of the houses in Evatt's area had cedar fences behind them. When the fences caught fire, they created a path to the homes. Evatt had a wood fence too, but she surrounded it with a swath of succulents.

Wooden fences should be outlawed in most Californian communities and this certainly includes San Francisco and Oakland. One of the deadliest fires in California was in Oakland. Many people could not flee fast enough as the fire shot from tree to tree, house to house. Giant eucalyptus trees have lots of gum and they were amazing torches.

I have renovated houses in communities where we had to worry about fires from neighbors. This is why people should use better materials when building new structures. Double or triple pane glass windows insulate the interior so ambient heat won't set the interior on fire, for example. And vinyl siding should be outlawed. It is zero protection and it melts away. Even a wooden exterior is superior to vinyl. Ditto the old alunimum siding. Houses out here that were built before 1970 often have asbestos shingling. This stuff is good but the asbestos health problems have killed that material. But stucco is a good choice.

Exterior shutters and a way of closing roof vents (or having a reverse airflow system via fans) would help, too. This is true of hurricane-prone regions too. We have had hurriane-force winds up here and neighbors of mine have had their own homes seriously damaged by rain pouring inside via the under the eaves roof vents. So mine are attached to pipes that run up 2'. The air can still circulate but rain can't shoot inside, it just gets the pipes wet and the water drips out again.

I have a house with a wood shingle exterior. But then, it is surrounded by a gravel road and stone walls and open fields that I keep mowed or my horse eats. The forest is a good ways away. We very seldom have fires out here but they can happen. The worst thing to have are pine trees: they turn into torches all too easily.

With global warming, we should all be more aware of better ways of organizing our lives.

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Comments

[JSmith]

"The annual burning of many houses in California now commences. This is a totally avoidable situation ..."

Yep. And very simple, too: don't build where it's brushy.

[Elaine Meinel Supkis]

Or live where there might be riots. I nearly lost a home in a riot in NYC where they burned down nearly the whole neighborhood. I hosed the roof all night long.