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The picture on the front page, above the fold, of today's Times shows a block of destroyed houses, with one house on the block still standing. (The closest shot I could find on the Times online appears to be from the same street, but shows more houses still standing.)

Since periodic wildfires are apparently common to SoCal, one wonders why the insurance companies and building codes don't require houses to be built to withstand these fires, since it appears to be possible. Or is this a case where the fire "jumped over" a house that was built the same way as the others in the development?

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Date: 2007-10-25 06:50 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] angwantibo.livejournal.com
Having grown up in Southern California and lived in a house that burnt down, maybe I can assist here. The Santa Ana winds are a high speed Westerly wind that spreads the fires. If it weren't for the winds, the fires would be much easier to contain. Because of the winds, fires can travel across streets on what looks like air bridges. I have a very clear memory of this from when I was 3. The direction of the wind and distance between houses determines which get burnt down. Neither of our next door neighbor houses burnt down and there was no house behind us. If you built your house out of brick and used a tile roof, your house may be able to resist fires better, but will crumble during an earthquake. Also, houses are built very close to each other. In another city we lived in town homes. If one house is hit, probably a dozen would quickly go down. Land is at a premium so building the houses further apart is very difficult.

Generally, fire is not such a big risk as compared to earthquakes. Everywhere is hit by earthquakes. Fires are usually brush fires and occur in the fields and hills that do not have houses on them. Dry brush has a low combustion point and the fires in these areas spread like, well, wildfire. As most people in Southern California live in the cities (it's continuous cities unlike the northeast), there isn't much risk of getting hit by a fire. The fire that hit our house came through Fullerton before it was built up.

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Andrew M. Greene

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