In form of wildfire in los angeles Hundreds of homes destroyed, one family that lost everything in the worst wildfire in Colorado history says there is a better way to rebuild.
Three years ago, Eric Ila, his wife and their now 4-year-old son Alex lost their two cats and their home in the Marshall Fire. It was two days before Alex's birthday.
“We've experienced something I never thought you'd experience, and I'm ready for it to happen again,” Ila said.
When it came time to rebuild, the Superior, Colorado father wanted to make sure his new home would be fire safe — so he chose a design concept called Passive House.
In traditional house designs, embers usually move into the house through roof vents during a fire. There's a reason houses in Los Angeles are burning from the inside out. According to Johnny Rezvani, a passive home materials supplier, in a home built using the passive design concept, there are very few places for embers to get trapped.
Compared to the roof vents of most homes, Passive House has only a single air inlet. A powerful filtration system is installed to control the air flow, which helps keep the embers away.
“And in an extreme weather event, what you would do if you had to evacuate, you would shut off that intake,” Rezvani said.
In Los Angeles, where the historic Palisades and Eaton fires were fueled by intense Santa Ana winds, a house following passive building principles was still standing in its neighborhood.
The reason not all new homes are built passively, despite the greater potential for fire survival, is cost. According to , building a Passive House can be up to 7% more expensive than a more traditional home Passive House Network,
Of the 300 homes that have been rebuilt in Superior, only six remain inactive. However new Colorado state law aims to change the way homes most at risk from wildfire are built.
“I was surprised that we don't need building standards,” said Democratic State Senator Lisa Cutter. “If your home is not well protected and you don't do everything you can to mitigate fires around the property etc. then you are putting your neighbor's home at risk “
Cutter pushed for the creation of Colorado's Wildfire Resiliency Code Board. It will identify areas at highest wildfire risk and, for the first time, enforce mandatory wildfire building codes. In Colorado, one million structures have been built at locations to meet or mingle with natural areas Where there is danger of forest fire. A One-third of all US housing is in a high-risk area – That means 44 million houses.
As climate change contributes to windier and drier conditions that are apt to increase the risks of fast-spreading fires, now is the time for some people to rethink how they live with and rebuild from it. Are.
