Residents are invited to learn construction modifications that are more fire-proof.
Fire Safe Palisades in association with the Palisades Highlands President’s Council, the Santa Ynez Homeowner’s Association and the Palisades Riviera Firewise Community is hosting a Home Hardening Community Workshop from 2 to 5 p.m. on Sunday, April 12 at the Calvary Church Gym,701 Palisades Drive.
Basically, the workshop will examine different materials and tell residents which are more fire resident. For example, multi-paned and tempered glass will withstand heat better. If a resident has a home standing after the fire, it might be beneficial to do a checklist to see if something should be upgraded.
From 2 to 3:30 p.m. there will be a vendor expo, which will feature fire-resistant vents and windows; gutter guards and ember protection; non-combustible fencing and sprinkler systems.
From 3:30 to 5 p.m. experts will speak about home ignition zone inspections, insurance guidance and fire-smart landscaping.
This editor lost her home on Radcliffe and went to the Fire Safe Palisades website click here. Since our house was “hardened,” but still burned, I perused “Hardening Your Home,” to see if there was something we should have done differently.
In the hardening area, there are eight boxes to click on: Accessory structures, vents, roofs, windows, doors, siding gutters and attached structures.
There are four vents that need to be addressed: foundation, attic, soffit and gable. We only had a foundation vent that was noncombustible, with gaps no bigger 1/8”. It appears vents were not the issue with our home.
There are four Class A roofs recommended: clay, metal, asphalt fiberglass and composition tiles. We had asphalt, solar panels and skylights. Everything was in good shape, and the week before I had cleared the roof of all leaves and pine needles. It appears the roof was not the issue.
Fire-safe windows was the next site I visited. There were four suggestions. Multi-pane windows are preferred over single pane because they act as a barrier from potential radiant heat. Tempered glass is preferred, because it offers resistance to breaking under thermal stress. Frame material suggested was metal or composite. Wood could offer some resistance if properly maintained. Most likely this is how embers caught the house on fire: glass was neither multi-pane or tempered and the wood frames needed upkeep.
Doors were addressed and it was recommended that non-combustible materials such as composite, trex and metal be used. Our detached garage, with a metal door, did not burn until January 8. Our doors appeared to be “hardened.”
Under siding and eaves, the siding materials recommended were fiber/cement,brick/stone and stucco. Our house was stucco. The house burned from the inside out and the walls collapsed in. The house did not have eaves. We were fine in this area.
Another problem for us wasunder fences, decks and shades structures. We had a stone deck. But on either side of the house on the property line were wood fences, which had weathered. The site said that to have them maintained properly, they should have been repainted with a weather resistant sealant. Most likely the fences contributed to the house fire.
Accessory structures need to follow all the same recommendations as a house.
CTN did an earlier story about vegetation “Zone Zero Recommendations Based on Faulty Experiments” https://www.circlingthenews.com/zone-zero-recomm…ulty-experiments/ . Trees and plants that hold a lot of moisture, trap embers.