Living With Fire (Part 3): Home Construction & Retrofitting For Fire Survivability ~Epi-035

In today's show we continued with the Living With Fire series in Part 3 - all about fire-proof or at least fire-wise home construction and home refit suggestions to increase fire survivability. Its all simple - some steps are easy and cheap, some are not. We will cover...

• Fire Proof Building Materials - stone, compressed/rammed earth (super adobe), earthbag construction, straw bale construction, earth-bermed structures.
• Dealing with apertures - apertures (openings) into the home are primary ignition pathways - the radiant heat from an approaching fire can ignite materials within the home without any embers or sparks entering the dwelling!
  • windows, vents, screens etc. = primary ignition pathways!
• Fire Shelters - why if you live in a fire-prone climate it's a good idea to have one!
• WEEDS fire sprinkler system - a counter-intuitive way to set up home sprinklers that makes them WAY more effective at protecting your home during a fire than typical roof-mounted impact sprinklers.

Show Resources

• Video of a family narrowly escaping the Paradise Fire in Paradise, CA. Fires hit fast - if you have a fire-safe shelter sometimes it can be safer to stay put and not risk getting caught out in the open!
• Living With Fire - Part 3 - Home Construction And Retrofit Suggestions For Fire Survivability - full blog post
• WEEDS Sprinkler System PDF - Wind-Enabled Ember Dousing
• UC Berkeley Home Fire Risk Assessment (2 minute assessment)

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Music by Alex Grohl