Building Codes in Question as Fires Burn Structures and Homes Across Los Angeles
Several fires are burning across Los Angeles County, the most devastating of which being the Palisades Fire. Spanning over 17,000 acres as of the early morning of January 9, the fire is reported to be the most destructive in Los Angeles history, according to KTLA.
Over 1,000 homes and structures have burned to ashes brought on amid hurricane-force, dry Santa Ana winds with the cause still under investigation.
“Extreme fire behavior, including short and long-range spotting, continues to challenge firefighting efforts for the Palisades Fire,” CalFire said in a bulletin. “Winds gusts up to 60 MPH are expected to continue through Thursday, potentially aiding in further fire activity and suppression efforts.”
Citizens and housing industry professionals should begin brainstorming and insisting on building codes that are truly fire-resistant. Though in California specifically, the codes would still need to meet earthquake standards. This could potentially be done with steel-reinforced cement materials in place of wood-frame structures.
We should encourage those losing their homes to rebuild fire-resistant. An approach insurance companies should welcome, and as experience is gained with fire-resistant homes, they will be less expensive up front in time.
“One of the companies I worked for years ago was in a tilt-up cement facility that I believed was very safe and surely fire-resistant,” wrote Douglas M. Chapman of the LA Times. “The technology exists; we just need to revise our building codes to encourage more fire-resistant structures.”
Photo credit: Radoslaw Ziomber, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
