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Some Los Angeles homes made it through the firestorm. Here’s how
January 17, 20255:54 AM ET
Lauren Sommer
More than 10,000 houses have been destroyed in Los Angeles, the charred piles of wood and metal all that remains
after the fast-moving wildfires. But within that wreckage, some homes are still standing, seemingly untouched. It’s a
phenomenon that’s been seen in other high-intensity fires, something that can feel like a stroke of luck. Sometimes,
the houses survived because the winds could have shifted at just the right moment. But more often, fire experts are
finding those homeowners took key precautions that likely saved their houses from burning, …. known as creating
“defensible space.” In Los Angeles, fire experts are surveying the surviving homes, looking for clues about what
worked, in the hope of improving construction standards and helping prevent similar disasters. Steve Hawks works
for the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety, a non-profit research group that studies how buildings burn.
Hawks job is to try to figure out why some buildings make it through a wildfire mostly unscathed.
Clearing vegetation that connects to the house.
Wildfires are often spread through embers, tiny bits of burning debris that strong winds can cast more than a mile
away. If embers land in a bush or tree, the fire can spread to new places, even if the surrounding homes aren’t burning. The key is to ensure the plants and bushes aren’t touching each other and the house, acting like a highway for
the flames. Studies show that plants growing within five feet of a structure dramatically increases the risk of ignition.
That first five feet is critical.
Putting space between buildings
As a detached garage burned, it likely produced extreme radiant heat, reaching temperatures in the thousands of
degrees. That heat is enough to ignite nearby buildings. But in one case, the main house is sitting 30 feet from the
garage. “If this garage was closer, it could have led to the loss of this structure,” Hawks says. “Our research is saying at ten feet or less, that’s so close together that when one ignites and is burning, even good materials have a hard
time withstanding that much exposure.” An analysis from Hawks’ team found where the Palisades Fire damage was
the worst, more than half the homes were distanced less than 20 feet apart.
Using fire-resistant building materials
While one house was spared, Hawks spots a burn mark on its outside wall, appearing to be from something that was
sitting right next to the house and caught on fire. But the flames didn’t ignite the rest of the house, because its exterior is covered in stucco, not a more flammable material such as wood. The home’s building materials check a lot of
other boxes for Hawks. The roof is fire-resistant, which is known as “class A,” the gutters are metal, and the windows are made of double-paned tempered glass, which are better at resisting shattering in high heat. Even the
smallest details can matter. The attic vents, just under the roofline, are covered in mesh. If the mesh’s openings are
too large, embers can fly directly into a house and ignite it from the interior. The surviving house is a newer one.
Hawks says the homeowner likely had to construct it to comply with California’s building codes for wildfire areas,
known as “chapter 7a,” which mandate many of these features. Studies show that for new construction, the codes
don’t have to add a significant cost. Older homes in the area don’t often meet these codes, but Hawks says retrofits
can still be done. Every house that doesn’t burn in an extreme wildfire is beneficial to the whole community, Hawks
says, since it doesn’t produce the heat and embers that can spread the fire to others. “We’re not going be able to
keep fires out from every community under every situation, so we need to prepare communities and that’s at the parcel level,” Hawks says.
(Article courtesy of NPR.org 2025)
Prop 19 overview
Homeowners who are 55 or over, severely disabled, or whose homes were destroyed by wildfire or natural disaster, may transfer the taxable value of
their primary residence to a replacement primary residence …
Up to three times (although there’s no limit for those whose houses were destroyed by wildfire or natural disaster)
These rules are in effect on and after April 1, 2021
Anywhere in the state
Regardless of the location
Regardless of the value of the replacement primary residence — even if it’s greater in value (with an upward adjustment in the tax basis if the replacement property is greater in value)
Within two years of the sale of the original primary residence
Up to three times (although there’s no limit for those whose houses were destroyed by wildfire or natural disaster)
These rules are in effect on and after April 1, 2021.
Information courtesy of C.A.R.
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