Dec 6: Change the odds, save your house

[Garett Dworman]

Why do some homes burn and some don’t, when wildfires burn through inhabited neighborhoods?

In this 10-minute video, Glass Fire Post Fire Analysis - For Residents, a fire chief leads an educational tour through a neighborhood that was just ravaged by the Glass Fire of 2020. He shows houses — literally next to each other — one burned, one not, and discusses why.

“I really believe that if people had done their home hardening and Zone 0 defensible space work, those homes would have survived. If they didn’t have flammable material within the 3-5 feet of space, if they blocked their eaves, or they had improved vents so fire could not get in their attic. I firmly believe they would have survived this fire.”

The takeaway:  We cannot control a wildfire coming our way, but we can reduce the odds that our homes will burn.

Here are some highlights from the video:

• Protect your attic! Embers getting into the attics is the major culprit. “From what I see, every one of them burned from the attic down.”

• Consider your Zone 0 defensible space (0-5 feet from the structure). The video shows a scorched house literally next to an untouched house. The scorched house had flammable wood chips around it, the untouched had non-flammable cedar chips.