Pray for SoCal - the place is burning

[drbill]

I park my Mercedes (OK, so it's a 20 year old Toyota Tercel) on the other side of the Channel. That way only my house or my car burn up, not both. I can live in either... kind of.

On a serious note, I hope more SoCal members join in this thread so we know they are OK.

 

[Teamcasa]

Let me try to clear something up as it relates to roofs in a fire storm.
Wood treated shingles are fire resistant and few meet the new California Building Codes for fire areas. Concrete, clay, and fiberglass tiles meet a higher standard but none with absolutely prevent your home from burning in a fire storm.

It’s hard to relate to someone who has not witnessed a fire storm up close just how powerful they are. Image being in a hurricane or tornado and instead of rain, it’s on fire. I’ve have seen clay tile roofs blow off and the house explode in flames, burn to the ground all in the course of 20 minutes, while the firefighters are pumping water on it with a dozen hoses.

Combine fuel sources like a beautiful grove of very green avocado trees, 80+mph winds and an approaching fire storm. First the beautiful green grove turns brown before your very eyes, seconds (yes, seconds) later, the grove is ablaze and the wind is heating up your house. As the heat rises, even the wood in the walls and roof begins to approach ignition temperatures. As the fire storm continues to superheat your walls when suddenly, boom your house is blown apart and is destroyed. Then the storm just moves violently on to the next source of fuel.

Firestorms have crossed eight lanes of freeway, jumped rivers and didn’t even slow down until the main winds driving them have abated. The best method for steering the storm is to burn a backfire area ahead of the approaching storm. The backfire will consume the fuel in the path of the main front and if it’s large enough, the fire storm can be pushed back. This combined with phoschek (a fire retardant chemical added to water, dropped by aircraft) can only steer the storm, not stop it.

The heroic efforts of the fire fighters can only really be effective after the winds slow or stop. They make great headway at night when the winds slow and can only hope their steering efforts are successful in the mornings when the winds return to full force.

People that life in fire prone areas need to do all they can to limit fuel sources and combustible items on and around their homes. However, short of building a bunker out of concrete, if your home is in the path of a full fire storm, it will burn.

 

[RonDawg]

What kind of treatment do you suppose will prevent wood from catching fire in a wildfire?

I can't speak for their effectiveness, but this company says that its products make wood shake roofs legally acceptable with CA's building codes:

Chemco: Fire Retardant Roofing

Besides fire breaks around the property (like an Arizona motif with rocks etc), the only thing that will save a house is noncombustible roofing.

It helps but again it's not a cure all. As I stated above, I saw footage of burning houses that had non-combustible roofing such as red tiles. Wood decks are also susceptible, and I saw lots of those going up in smoke, particularly in footage of the Lake Arrowhead fires.

The only way to fully "save" a house from fire is to totally build it out of non-combustible materials: concrete slab floor, brick or adobe walls, steel upper floor and roofing members. If anything in or on the house is combustible, including interior contents, it's still susceptible to fire.

The Lt-Governor was speaking about insurance premium discounts when he spoke of the hazard of wooden roofing. It makes sense however from a safety standpoint as well. Glad they were finally banned. Really dumb idea in the first place, to stack the equivalent of firewood on top of your most expensive asset, your house. Especially with a Mercedes also in the garage. Havent you seen this on the news?

Having grown up in, and for a short while owned my own house, in a so-called "Urban-Wildland Interface Area", I know what it's like to live with the constant danger of wildfire and the prospect of losing your home and everything you own.

Wood shake roofs, like red tile roofs, have been long part of the SoCal architecture scene. With certain types of house designs, there is an appeal to having one, that's why people look for expensive but realistic looking alternatives even though the old standby, asphalt shingles, are cheaper and are far more fire resistant.

And not everybody in SoCal owns a Mercedes/BMW/Audi/Lexus/name-that-overpriced-car

 

[Divin'Papaw]

Wow. I'm in awe. How terrifying. And they've officially ruled at least some of these fires as arson. Sick. Horribly sick.

Why? It just makes no sense.

 

[RonDawg]

Let me try to clear something up as it relates to roofs in a fire storm.
Wood treated shingles are fire resistant and few meet the new California Building Codes for fire areas. Concrete, clay, and fiberglass tiles meet a higher standard but none with absolutely prevent your home from burning in a fire storm.

It’s hard to relate to someone who has not witnessed a fire storm up close just how powerful they are. Image being in a hurricane or tornado and instead of rain, it’s on fire. I’ve have seen clay tile roofs blow off and the house explode in flames, burn to the ground all in the course of 20 minutes, while the firefighters are pumping water on it with a dozen hoses.

Combine fuel sources like a beautiful grove of very green avocado trees, 80+mph winds and an approaching fire storm. First the beautiful green grove turns brown before your very eyes, seconds (yes, seconds) later, the grove is ablaze and the wind is heating up your house. As the heat rises, even the wood in the walls and roof begins to approach ignition temperatures. As the fire storm continues to superheat your walls when suddenly, boom your house is blown apart and is destroyed. Then the storm just moves violently on to the next source of fuel.

Firestorms have crossed eight lanes of freeway, jumped rivers and didn’t even slow down until the main winds driving them have abated. The best method for steering the storm is to burn a backfire area ahead of the approaching storm. The backfire will consume the fuel in the path of the main front and if it’s large enough, the fire storm can be pushed back. This combined with phoschek (a fire retardant chemical added to water, dropped by aircraft) can only steer the storm, not stop it.

The heroic efforts of the fire fighters can only really be effective after the winds slow or stop. They make great headway at night when the winds slow and can only hope their steering efforts are successful in the mornings when the winds return to full force.

People that life in fire prone areas need to do all they can to limit fuel sources and combustible items on and around their homes. However, short of building a bunker out of concrete, if your home is in the path of a full fire storm, it will burn.

Thanks for explaining this TC.

One thing also worth mentioning is that with the San Diego fires in particular, I noticed a lot of footage of burning homes near eucalyptus groves. If I'm not mistaken, burning eucalyptus trees are particularly hazardous, and were a major factor in the 1991 Oakland Hills (CA) firestorm. I happened to personally witness that one, and I will personally attest to a firestorm's ability to jump across an 8 lane freeway and 2 lanes of frontage road on each side.

 

[RonDawg]

Havent heard from Mo2Vation recently either ...

He's the originator of this thread. Unless he's moved, he's a good distance from the nearest fire (Malibu).

On another note, last night I went down to "The O.C." to visit a friend. While his home isn't in danger, the acrid smoke combined with the fact that he has cats is wreaking havoc with my allergies today :11: