Whaaoooh. My comment was nothing to do with California fires specifically and appears to be taken out of context. What I was suggesting is that due to climate change (which I am a strong believer) the world is changing and previously safe desirable places to live may not be so much any more due to climate change. Planet earth is seeing changes occurring very rapidly and unpredictably. I mentioned that that Florida seaside properties may not be a great future long term investment but said nothing at all about the current Cali wildfire. BTW, BC to your north had a the same fires a couple of years ago. And I agree that Trump is a shithead president and his comment about the cause being "mismanagement" are totally in line with his ignorance of science and denial about climate change.

update: no houseguests yet. went down there, very few animals. no people. just animal control folks. they have a pretty good set up. huge covered barn, 120 stalls? 24hr a day occupied by animal control folks. free feed, free board (in cases like this) for as long as it takes. pierce college fills first in a case like this. hansen dam second. they're both at capacity. but very little has come up to the antelope valley.

my house is built out of concrete block. 8" block. block and bond beams. i built my own guest house myself out of the same construction. we're 1mi from the san andreas fault. PLENTY of commercial structured built this way. however, i DO have wood roof rafters. roof is fireproof, but, that's the one thing that could burn at my house (besides the outbuildings, barns, etc., which are stick frame construction).

No and if you cannot or will not help those in need cut the crap. The fires are serious shit, Man.

Back in Croatia we have forest fires fairly regularly. We installed sprinklers on the outside of the house, covering the roof. We didn't have to use them yet but I wander if it would help in these fire prone areas.

I think given the population density, you would run out of water before being able to cover all the houses.

Surprised metal roofs are not required in all these areas. Seems Building Codes are way out of date.

Let's not forget that forest fires have always been naturally occurring events. That's how the forest renews itself but by preventing the normal cycle of life the underbrush just becomes heavier and more potentially more off a hazard . As humans we've interfered with mother nature's cycle and sooner or later it will come back and bite us in the ass.

This is the biggest thing. We stop the fires to protect homes, which just builds up more burnable material. There’s not a good fix or answer.[/quot


I think Southern California is somewhat unique in that most of the burnable stuff is brush as opposed to having mature forest where periodic fires clear the underbrush but the main forest stays intact. Do they require people to clear away an envelope around their property, I don't know and don't know if it would work? When I told a guy from France I owned a forest he was surprised that if didn't take a lot of work to clear out underbrush because that is required over there.

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They constantly try to escape from the darkness outside and within
Dreaming of systems so perfect that no one will need to be good T.S. Eliot

Let's not forget that forest fires have always been naturally occurring events. That's how the forest renews itself but by preventing the normal cycle of life the underbrush just becomes heavier and more potentially more off a hazard . As humans we've interfered with mother nature's cycle and sooner or later it will come back and bite us in the ass.

Earthquakes.

BTW, a good friend of mine built in a fire prone area here in SB. There’s a building material that basically “builds like wood” (cut, screw, nail, etc.) but it is completely fire safe (will not burn). It’s used all over the place.

City of Santa Bárbara would not approve the use of the material.