Building wildfire fire damage:

Here we discuss problems of wildfire damage risks to homes and how to minimize the risk of wildfire damage.

Wildfire Damage Prevention Advice for Homeowners

The August 8 2023 wildfire damage that destroyed homes and left people dead or missing was another tragic loss impelling the insurance and re-insurance agencies to re-evaluate the process for setting insurance rates and extent of coverage for homes and other buildings.

Following that fire, once again, the most-cited steps that homeowners whose homes are located in wildfire risk zones can take to reduce the level of fire hazard to their own building include the use of flame-resistant roofing and exterior wall coverings, keeping plants and shrubs away from the building, and using roof vents that prevent burning embers from blowing up into the building's roof structure. Paraphasing from Nerkar, Santul & Emily Flitter, "Insurers Will Re-evaluate Hawaii's Risk", The New York Times, 2023/08/28 pp. B1, B3.

Recommendations about Trees, Shrubs, other Vegetation around the building to reduce wildfire damage risks

• Watch out: the first priority in event of a wildfire in your area is getting out of your home and to a safe location in time to avoid injury or death.
• Wildfire safety margin around homes: Experts offer basic advice about the role of plants around the home by type and by distances, such as suggestion to plant fire-resistant shrubs, keeping brush cleared away from near the home, and keep shrubs and brush a recommended distance from the building.
  
  Typically we keep shrubs five feet or more away from building walls to avoid inviting insect pests into the structure.
  
  In areas where wildfires are common you may need to keep plantings still further away or keep them quite small if close to the home.
  
  Watch out: in event of a wildfire, windborne and heat-borne burning brands from trees and even other buildings distant from your home are still a source of fire hazard.
  
  That's why attention to the fire-rating properties of your home's roof are also very important.
• Insurance protection from wildfire damage:
  • Consult your homeowners' insurance company for their wildfire damage prevention advice and also to review your insurance coverage
  • Inventory: make a photo-inventory of all of your possessions as well as the features of your home, inside and out, and store the data in a backup-copy off-site or at an online internet data service
• Also see FIRE DAMAGE vs MOLD DAMAGE in buildings

Fire-resistant roofing recommendations to reduce risk of wildfire damage to a home

• Class A Material Roof fire rating:
  
  Particularly if the roof covering is not highly fire resistant (clay or cement tiles for example) you should Investigate use of fire-retardant coatings for roofing where they can be applied, such as treatments for wood shakes or shingles.
  
  Fire-retardant additives can be purchased to mix into building paints to provide a Class A Fire Retardant Coating Rating (12 oz. of additive per gallon of paint) -
  
  Watch out: be sure that the fire retardant and paint combination you are preparing is intended for exterior use, and follow the manufacturer's recommendations. [Fire retardant paint does not make a building fire proof. It retards flame spread and smoke.]¹ For details see
  • Boxed-in roof eaves 
    
    and rafter ends can also improve the fire resistance of the roof structure by protecting rafter ends from flying embers and heat.
  • Check that gable end vents 
    
    are covered with metal (not plastic) screening to help keep flying embers out of the home's attic or roof space.
  • FIRE RATINGS for ROOF SURFACES - what is the fire rating of each type of roofing material?
  • FIRE RETARDANT PLYWOOD - using FRT plywood can reduce flame spread and improve the fire resistance of buildings but watch out for defective FRT & structural failures on some older homes
  • WOOD ROOF COATINGS & FIRE RATINGS - special products are recommended, even required for wood roofs in some zones of high risk of wildfires
  • Class-A fire resistant asphalt shingles
  • Other fire resistant roofing: metal roofing, metal roof shingles, stone, slate, tile roofing

Fire-resistant windows & doors for homes in wildfire-prone areas

If you have occasion to replace windows or doors on your home, when choosing new windows look for dual-glazed tempered glass glazing - a material that is more heat and ember resistant than single pane windows.

Fire-resistant building vents at roofs, walls, foundations

In wildfire prone areas building intake and exhaust vents such as soffit vents or gable-end vents and possibly ridge vents on roofs need to be designed for fire-resistance.

See details

at ROOF VENTILATION, FIRE RESISTANT

In some areas such as parts of Australia where bush-fires are a significant hazard, building codes require the use of fire-resitant screens on masonry veneer vent openings such as brick vents.

See the product citations

at BRICK WALL DRAIN, FLASHING, VENT SOURCES - weep hole screens required for bush fire protection e.g. in Australia

Advice & Procedures for Prevention of Damage to Homes by Wildfires

Some references and resources that we like for wildfire damage prevention include

• Also see WOOD ROOF COATINGS & FIRE RATINGS
• [2] Ace Fire Retardant Solvent-Based Coatings, Ace Coatings Limited, 60 Little London Road, Sheffield S8 0UH, Britain, 44 (0) 114 221 3807- web search 06/26/2010 - http://www.acecoatings.co.uk/product/
  ace-fire-retardant-solvent-based-coatings
• Agee, James K. & Carl N. Skinner, "Basic principles of forest fuel reduction treatments", Forest Ecology and Management Volume 211, Issues 1–2, 6 June 2005, Pages 83–96.
• Arno, Stephen F. Protecting people and homes from wildfire in the interior west: proceedings of the symposium and workshop. No. 251-255. The Station, 1988.
• Bihari, Menka, Elisabeth M. Hamin, and Robert L. Ryan. UNDERSTANDING THE ROLE OF PLANNERS IN WILDFIRE PREPAREDNESS AND MITIGATION [PDF] International Scholarly Research Notices 2012 (2012).
  Abstract:
  
  As wildfires affect more residential areas across the United States, the need for collaboration between land managers, federal agencies, neighbours, and local governments has become more pressing especially in the context of the wildland-urban interface. Previous research has not focused much on land-use planners’ role in wildfire mitigation.
  
  This paper provides information on how land-use planners can assist communities in learning to live with wildfire risk through planning, preparedness, and mitigation efforts in the wildland-urban interface (WUI).
  
  Based on interviews with land-use planners, forest planners, and local emergency management officials, we identified a range of tools that could be used for improving wildfire preparedness and mitigation initiatives in the WUI, but also found that planners felt that they lacked the regulatory authority to use these tenaciously.
  
  The paper also identifies a range of possible actions that would contribute towards safer building practices in the interface communities.
• Bracmort, Kelsi. WILDFIRE DAMAGES TO HOMES AND RESOURCES: UNDERSTANDING CAUSES AND REDUCING LOSSES [PDF] Library of Congress, Congressional Research Service, 2012.
• Calkin, David E., Jack D. Cohen, Mark A. Finney, and Matthew P. Thompson. "How risk management can prevent future wildfire disasters in the wildland-urban interface." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 111, no. 2 (2014): 746-751.
  Abstract:
  
  Recent fire seasons in the western United States are some of the most damaging and costly on record. Wildfires in the wildland-urban interface on the Colorado Front Range, resulting in thousands of homes burned and civilian fatalities, although devastating, are not without historical reference.
  
  These fires are consistent with the characteristics of large, damaging, interface fires that threaten communities across much of the western United States. Wildfires are inevitable, but the destruction of homes, ecosystems, and lives is not.
  
  We propose the principles of risk analysis to provide land management agencies, first responders, and affected communities who face the inevitability of wildfires the ability to reduce the potential for loss. Overcoming perceptions of wildland-urban interface fire disasters as a wildfire control problem rather than a home ignition problem, determined by home ignition conditions, will reduce home loss.
• Champ, Patricia A., Geoffrey H. Donovan, and Christopher M. Barth. "Living in a tinderbox: wildfire risk perceptions and mitigating behaviours." International Journal of Wildland Fire 22, no. 6 (2013): 832-840.
  Abstract:
  
  The loss of homes to wildfires is an important issue in the USA and other countries. Yet many homeowners living in fire-prone areas do not undertake mitigating actions, such as clearing vegetation, to decrease the risk of losing their home.
  
  To better understand the complexity of wildfire risk-mitigation decisions and the role of perceived risk, we conducted a survey of homeowners in a fire-prone area of the front range of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado. We examine the relationship between perceived wildfire risk ratings and risk-mitigating behaviours in two ways.
  
  First, we model wildfire risk-mitigation behaviours as a function of perceived risk. Then, we model wildfire risk-mitigation behaviours and perceived risk simultaneously. The results of the simultaneous model suggest that perceived risk and wildfire risk-mitigating behaviours are jointly determined.
  
  By correctly specifying the relationship between risk perceptions and mitigating behaviours, we are better able to understand the relationship between other factors, such as exposure to a wildfire-mitigation program and wildfire risk-mitigating behaviours. We also find that having a wood roof, as well as homeowner age, income and previous experience with living in a fire-prone area, are associated with wildfire risk-mitigating behaviours.
• Cohen, Jack D., "Preventing Disaster: Home Ignitability in the Wildland-Urban Interface", Journal of Forestry, Volume 98, Number 3, 1 March 2000 , pp. 15-21(7), Society of American Foresters.
  
  Abstract: Wildland-urban interface (W-UI) fires are a significant concern for federal, state, and local land management and fire agencies. Research using modeling, experiments, and W-UI case studies indicates that home ignitability during wildland fires depends on the characteristics of the home and its immediate surroundings.
  
  These findings have implications for hazard assessment and risk mapping, effective mitigations, and identification of appropriate responsibility for reducing the potential for home loss caused by W-UI fires.
• Gorte, Ross W., and Kelsi Bracmort. FOREST FIRE/WILDFIRE PROTECTION [PDF] Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress, 2006.
  Abstract excerpt:
  Individuals who choose to build homes in the urban-wildland interface face some risk of loss from wildfires, but can take steps to protect their homes. Federal, state, and local governments can and do assist by protecting their own lands, by providing financial and technical assistance, and by providing relief after the fire.
• Kristen, C. Nelson, C. Monroe Martha, and Jayne Fingerman Johnson. "The look of the land: homeowner landscape management and wildfire preparedness in Minnesota and Florida." Society and Natural Resources 18.4 (2005): 321-336.
• Long, Alan J., Dale D. Wade, and Frank C. Beall. "13 Managing for Fire in the Interface: Challenges and Opportunities." Forests at the wildland-urban interface: Conservation and management (2004): 201.
• Mall, Amy, Franz Matzner, and Niel Lawrence. "Safe at Home." (2007). http://www.nrdc.org/land/forests/safe/safe.pdf, retrieved 3/4/2013
• Moritz, Max A., Enric Batllori, Ross A. Bradstock, A. Malcolm Gill, John Handmer, Paul F. Hessburg, Justin Leonard et al. "Learning to coexist with wildfire." Nature 515, no. 7525 (2014): 58-66.
  Abstract:
  The impacts of escalating wildfire in many regions — the lives and homes lost, the expense of suppression and the damage to ecosystem services — necessitate a more sustainable coexistence with wildfire. Climate change and continued development on fire-prone landscapes will only compound current problems.
  
  Emerging strategies for managing ecosystems and mitigating risks to human communities provide some hope, although greater recognition of their inherent variation and links is crucial.
  
  Without a more integrated framework, fire will never operate as a natural ecosystem process, and the impact on society will continue to grow. A more coordinated approach to risk management and land-use planning in these coupled systems is needed.
• National Fire Protection Association, and United States Fire Administration. Wildfire Strikes Home: The Report of the National Wildland/Urban Fire Protection Conference. FEMA, 1987.
• NFPA, National Fire Protection Association, and United States Fire Administration. Wildfire Strikes Home: The Report of the National Wildland/Urban Fire Protection Conference. FEMA, 1987.
• [1] NFPA Note 1. A Class A Fire Retardant Coating, according to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA)
  
  "As applied to building materials, is a coating that reduces the flame spread to 25 or less, and that has a smoke developed rating not exceeding 200." A Class B Fire Retardant Coating, according to the NFPA, "As applied to building materials, is a coating that reduces the flame spread to greater than 25 but not more than 75, and that has a smoke developed rating not exceeding 200.
  
  The flame spread rating is expressed numerically on a scale for which the zero point is fixed by the performance of an inorganic-reinforced cement board and the 100 point (approximately) is fixed by the performance of red oak flooring ... FSI is a dimensionless value derived from the ASTM E 84 test standard. The higher the FSI, the faster the rate of flame spread across the surface of the material."
• Paulo M. Fernandes and Hermínio S. Botelho, "A review of prescribed burning effectiveness in fire hazard reduction", International Journal of Wildland Fire 12(2) 117 - 128
  
  Abstract: Wildfire hazard abatement is one of the major reasons to use prescribed burning. Computer simulation, case studies, and analysis of the fire regime in the presence of active prescribed burning programs in forest and shrubland generally indicate that this fuel management tool facilitates fire suppression efforts by reducing the intensity, size and damage of wildfires.
  
  However, the conclusions that can be drawn from the above approaches are limited, highlighting the need for more properly designed experiments addressing this question. Fuel accumulation rate frequently limits prescribed fire effectiveness to a short post-treatment period (2–4 years).
  
  Optimisation of the spatial pattern of fire application is critical but has been poorly addressed by research, and practical management guidelines are lacking to initiate this. Furthermore, adequate treatment efforts in terms of fire protection are constrained by operational, social and ecological issues.
  
  The best results of prescribed fire application are likely to be attained in heterogeneous landscapes and in climates where the likelihood of extreme weather conditions is low. Conclusive statements concerning the hazard-reduction potential of prescribed fire are not easily generalised, and will ultimately depend on the overall efficiency of the entire fire management process.
• Quarles, Stephen L., et al. "Home survival in wildfire-prone areas: Building materials and design considerations." ANR Publication 8393 (2010). http://www.wildfirezone.org/assets/images/resource_docs/homesurvivalwildfireareas.pdf, retieved 3/4/2013.
• Smith, Rebecca K. "War on Wildfire: The US Forest Service's Wildland Fire Suppression Policy and Its Legal, Scientific, and Political Context." U. Balt. J. Envtl. L. 15 (2007): 25.
• Westhaver, Alan. WHY SOME HOMES SURVIVED: LEARNING FROM THE FORT MCMURRAY WILDFIRE DISASTER PRELIMINARY REPORT. [PDF] Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction, Toronto, ON (2016). ISBN: 978-1-927929-04-9
  Note:
  ICLR’s mission is to reduce the loss of life and property caused by severe weather and earthquakes through the identification and support of sustained actions that improve society’s capacity to adapt to, anticipate, mitigate, withstand and recover from natural disasters.
  
  Excerpt:
  The vital question to be answered was: ‘Why did some homes survive this wildland/urban interface fire with little or no damage, while others were vulnerable to ignition and destroyed?’ Obtaining the answer to this question, and others arising from it, is urgent.
  
  Two similar catastrophes of escalating magnitude have occurred since 2003, and there is rising probability of more frequent infernos in the future given present trends in climate change, forest fuel accumulations, and expansion of people and development into wildlands.
  
  This unique study1 was carried out from May 19 to 28, 2016 in urban neighbourhoods at the forested ‘interface’ fringes of the city, and at forested acreages nearby.

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• AUTOMATIC FIRE & SMOKE DAMPERS
• BRICK WALL DRAIN, FLASHING, VENT SOURCES - weep hole screens required for bush fire protection e.g. in Australia
• BUILDING DAMAGE ASSESSMENT & REPAIR - home
• FIRE DAMAGED BUILDINGS, ASSESSMENT, REPAIR
• FIRE RETARDANT TREATED FRT ROOF PLYWOOD
• PYROLYSIS EXPLAINED
• ROOF VENTILATION, FIRE RESISTANT
• WILDFIRE DAMAGE PREVENTION for HOMES
• WOOD ROOF COATINGS & FIRE RATINGS

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