# Is it practical to build very fire resistant homes in LA? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 11, 2025, 8:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-practical-to-build-very-fire-resistant-homes-in-la/1012838 "2025-01-11T08:20:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2025, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-practical-to-build-very-fire-resistant-homes-in-la/1012838/61 "2025-01-14T02:17:54Z")
> [@Maserschmidt](#): > > And that’s not even what that article implies - it implies that PG&E (if that’s the electric company) is going to get sued again, and possibly declare bankruptcy again. PG&E is not the electric utility in that part of California. Outside of the city of Los Angeles, it’s Southern California Edison. L.A. has its own Department of Water and Power. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2025, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-practical-to-build-very-fire-resistant-homes-in-la/1012838/62 "2025-01-14T02:19:06Z")
> [@suranyi](#): > > PG&E is not the electric utility in that part of California. Outside of the city of Los Angeles, it’s Southern California Edison. L.A. has its own Department of Water and Power. Got it, thanks. I’m sure their lawyers are having lots of meetings. And here they go. > **[First lawsuits filed against Southern California Edison over Eaton Fire](https://abc7.com/post/california-wildfires-2-lawsuits-filed-southern-edison-eaton-fire-pasadena-altadena/15796131/)** > > At least four lawsuits were filed Monday morning against Southern California Edison in connection with the Eaton Fire. ---
**Author:** ![md-2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9d8465/32.png) [@md-2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md-2000)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2025, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-practical-to-build-very-fire-resistant-homes-in-la/1012838/63 "2025-01-14T13:33:10Z")
It seems to me a utility that’s paying out so much money in lawsuits that it goes bankrupt does not really have the finances to begin a major effort to bury transmission lines - which brings its own set of hazards in areas prone to landslides in wet years, not to mention people getting all upset over the mess when treed and lanscaped areas are being dug through with trenches. ---
**Author:** ![snowthx](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowthx/32/10660_2.png) [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2025, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-practical-to-build-very-fire-resistant-homes-in-la/1012838/64 "2025-01-14T14:22:32Z")
Well, PG&E, which serves most other areas in California, has been heavily sued and [been thru bankruptcy](https://apnews.com/article/af0ec776efd4b3049f7800ff981bff88), but is progressing with their [undergrounding plan](https://www.kcra.com/article/pge-track-bury-10000-miles-underground-power-lines-high-fire-risk-areas/44645248). ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2025, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-practical-to-build-very-fire-resistant-homes-in-la/1012838/65 "2025-01-14T14:30:44Z")
> [@jjakucyk](#): > > This is the point I wanted to make. Additional fire resistance isn’t that hard, and a lot of it is already standard practice in California. If you wanted to go full fireproof, you’d build out of poured concrete, with concrete block interior walls, and some sprinklers. Commercial construction and parking garages in earthquake-prone areas already do that, it’s not hard. Nevertheless, even if you have fire shutters over the windows, at some point a wildfire can get so hot that it simply auto-ignites the contents of the home. That’s your furniture, flooring, doors, cabinets, clothing, toys, books, rugs, appliances, electronics, and the vehicles in your garage. So even if the house doesn’t burn down, it can still burn (up?). But as far as I can tell, when a building burns up like that from the inside, the fire is more or less contained in its footprint, right? From what I understand, the fires right now are basically operating as a chain reaction - houses burn down, the wind blows the embers to the next block of house, which burn down themselves, and so on and so on. That wouldn’t happen with concrete buildings. Maybe one solution is for the county to have strips of high-rise apartment building blocks built that would serve as “firebreaks” between wooden neighborhoods? ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2025, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-practical-to-build-very-fire-resistant-homes-in-la/1012838/66 "2025-01-14T14:38:53Z")
The heat from those wildfires is insane. Fire “resistant” is not fire “proof”, and I can’t imagine any fire resistant home that could withstand that kind of inferno. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2025, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-practical-to-build-very-fire-resistant-homes-in-la/1012838/67 "2025-01-14T14:41:51Z")
It’s not about protecting houses - it’s about protecting the _next_ block of houses. Concrete buildings might burn, but they don’t create flying embers that spread the fire further. Strategic placement of less-flammable buildings can help limit the spread of wildfires, IMHO. ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2025, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-practical-to-build-very-fire-resistant-homes-in-la/1012838/68 "2025-01-14T14:43:51Z")
Ah, okay, thanks! ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2025, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-practical-to-build-very-fire-resistant-homes-in-la/1012838/69 "2025-01-14T15:17:28Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > It’s not about protecting houses - it’s about protecting the _next_ block of houses. Concrete buildings might burn, but they don’t create flying embers that spread the fire further. > [@Alessan](#): > > Strategic placement of less-flammable buildings can help limit the spread of wildfires, IMHO. I don’t think structures have ever been a significant source of the flying embers that make these wind fueled fires so devastating. Every neighborhood essentially has a fuse made of palm trees (100,000 in LA alone) that connect to a wilderness area. Even if that wasn’t the case, 80mph winds and the embers they carry are not going to be thwarted by any wall of high rise structures unless the buildings are built to record breaking heights. ---
**Author:** ![Pork\_Rind](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pork_rind/32/111_2.png) [@Pork\_Rind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pork_Rind)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2025, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-practical-to-build-very-fire-resistant-homes-in-la/1012838/70 "2025-01-14T15:27:26Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > Every neighborhood essentially has a fuse made of palm trees (100,000 in LA alone) that connect to a wilderness area. Don’t forget the eucalyptus trees. Those are so full of oil that they quite literally can explode. > [ > Eucalyptus trees](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eucalyptus) are known to [explode](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eucalyptus#Fire) during [bush fires](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bushfire) due to vaporised eucalyptus oils producing an explosive mixture with air. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2025, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-practical-to-build-very-fire-resistant-homes-in-la/1012838/71 "2025-01-14T16:03:09Z")
> [@Pork\_Rind](#): > > Don’t forget the eucalyptus trees. Those are so full of oil that they quite literally can explode. When you burn eucalyptus logs they give off an oily smoke that leaves a sticky residue on anything it touches, and occasionally they will violently splinter off producing a shower of hot, sticky embers. The wood makes great kindling because it will burn even when moderately wet but you definitely don’t want a eucalyptus tree on fire near your house. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2025, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-practical-to-build-very-fire-resistant-homes-in-la/1012838/72 "2025-01-14T16:12:22Z")
> [@chappachula](#): > > here’s a photo of a house which survived completely, while all the neighbors were burnt to the ground. > > [Reddit - Dive into anything](https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/1hxzgh4/this_house_remained_intact_while_the_neighborhood/) > > it uses a technology called Passive House construction. This is apparently designed mostly with the purpose of conserving heat in the building, so that the building is made of almost airtight insulation. This somehow not only keeps the heat it, it keeps external heat out, and so it is also fireproof… I’m not really putting too much stock in the construction materials there as to why it was safe. Fires don’t behave predictably and there’s plenty other examples of singular houses untouched in a burn down neighborhood. If you notice in the picture the neighbor’s garage is similarly unburnt. ---
**Author:** ![Mk\_VII](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Mk\_VII](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mk_VII)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2025, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-practical-to-build-very-fire-resistant-homes-in-la/1012838/73 "2025-01-14T17:40:07Z")
Few of us would want to live in a Maginot Line-type bunker, and that’s what it would take to be fireproof, plus eliminate all vegetation. ---
**Author:** ![Banksiaman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banksiaman/32/3334_2.png) [@Banksiaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banksiaman)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2025, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-practical-to-build-very-fire-resistant-homes-in-la/1012838/74 "2025-01-14T19:15:35Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > I don’t think structures have ever been a significant source of the flying embers that make these wind fueled fires so devastating. Every neighborhood essentially has a fuse made of palm trees (100,000 in LA alone) that connect to a wilderness area. Even if that wasn’t the case, 80mph winds and the embers they carry are not going to be thwarted by any wall of high rise structures unless the buildings are built to record breaking heights. Experience in the Australian bushfires was that embers could readily travel for kilometres ahead of the main fire front, although most fell within the first few hundred metres. That’s from full eucalyptus forest, but even street trees will produce the same effect at lower density. The only good reason to stay in an approaching fire is to deal with embers landing on your roof and guttering while the fire brigade is still busy two blocks away. The messages we get at the start of fire season are always to clean out your gutters and anything combustible around the house because of ember risk. ---
**Author:** ![FluffyBob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecb155/32.png) [@FluffyBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FluffyBob)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2025, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-practical-to-build-very-fire-resistant-homes-in-la/1012838/75 "2025-01-14T23:28:04Z")
This is misrepresented. There are unaffected trees behind and on the far side of the unaffected home. The siding appears to be wood, which is never fireproof. The roof structure is almost certainly unventilated/polyurethane foam insulated. Fire most often spreads by running up the siding and entering the attic through the soffit. No attic certainly reduces vulnerability to fire. Fire code here in Alberta requires unvented soffits and fire rated sheathing facing adjacent properties, I assume the same code was propagated across North American municpalities. Other than that the air tightness of a net zero home is going to have some advantage over conventional construction by limiting opportunities for fire to enter and pass through, but I doubt it is much of an advantage. Fire breaks, non combustible finishes and substrates have obvious advantages. Fire suppression systems are becoming more common for single family residential. I don’t know a lot about cobstruction in LA, but I would think there is already a high use of masonry and other non combustible building products. I don’t know that a whole lot more can be done when there is a wall of fire moving through a neighbourhood. I look at a lot of house fires. My role is mostly to provide scope of repairs and estimate, but I am in the loop with the fire department, investigators and engineers. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to observe how a fire tears through a home though. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2025, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-practical-to-build-very-fire-resistant-homes-in-la/1012838/76 "2025-01-15T01:35:05Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > I don’t think structures have ever been a significant source of the flying embers that make these wind fueled fires so devastating. Every neighborhood essentially has a fuse made of palm trees Yet the experts think otherwise. Embers from the vegetation AND from structures are how this spreads so quickly given high winds. > **[Small airborne embers play a big role in the spread of wildfires](https://apnews.com/article/california-wildfires-embers-spread-9d2eff9cac9d355f906ea5f63ace1957)** > > While authorities don’t know what sparked the deadly fires in the Los Angeles area, they do know that embers have helped spread the flames. > [@](#): > > While authorities still don’t know [what sparked the deadly fires](https://apnews.com/article/california-fires-possible-causes-6112488f835e45f53c67d4d03d7a1e4f) in the Los Angeles area, they do know one clear way the flames have spread: embers. … > > … “If it’s a wildland fire, it’s typically pieces of wood or other types of vegetation that are burning,” he said. “But when you have a fire that’s burning through an urban area, it can be vegetation, it can be pieces of the house, it can be almost anything that burns.” … ---
**Author:** ![themapleleaf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/themapleleaf/32/14349_2.png) [@themapleleaf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/themapleleaf)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2025, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-practical-to-build-very-fire-resistant-homes-in-la/1012838/77 "2025-01-15T19:28:59Z")
[There’s an article giving some details about this on CNN today](https://edition.cnn.com/2025/01/15/us/structures-buildings-homes-burned-la-fire/index.html). ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2025, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-practical-to-build-very-fire-resistant-homes-in-la/1012838/78 "2025-01-15T19:45:11Z")
Similarly, after hurricanes in Florida, there is footage on the TV news showing a devastated community with one or two houses remaining standing. There are definitely things that can be done to make homes resistant to whatever disaster is likely in that area. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2025, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-practical-to-build-very-fire-resistant-homes-in-la/1012838/79 "2025-01-15T22:28:35Z")
Same thing happened on Long Beach Island NJ during superstorm Sandy. It just usually had little to do with individual house construction, similar construction each of the homes, but just where the bigger crests happened to fall. And people still paying top dollar for homes there. ---
**Author:** ![Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a88e4f/32.png) [@Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Digital_is_the_new_Analog)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2025, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-practical-to-build-very-fire-resistant-homes-in-la/1012838/80 "2025-01-16T00:35:20Z")
Yeah…down here in South Florida it’s not uncommon to refer to a house as pre-Andrew or post-Andrew building code, when discussing hurricane resistance status. Hurricane Andrew wiped pretty much wiped Homestead off the map. That said, it’s still a different ball game compared to the intensity of those fires. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-practical-to-build-very-fire-resistant-homes-in-la/1012838.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-practical-to-build-very-fire-resistant-homes-in-la/1012838.md?page=5)