UC ARR Fire Expert illuminates materials, components and actions that have saved houses from La fires

This essay was written by Yana Valachovic, a member of the UC ANR -FIRE Network with a specialty in the resistance of the community and the built environment. She is County Director and Forest Advisor of the Cooperative Expansion of the University of California in the counties Humboldt and DEL Norte.

Many houses are still in the blocks of fire -friendly districts of the Palisades and Eaton Fire Footspints, each of which provides information on what they and the members of the community experienced in January 7th to 8th, 2025.

A squirt pistol, a mixing glass, shoveled out of a pool with water, cut fence panels on the floor, your hinges from her hinges, stains from fire hoses on cement and a shovel in the courtyard. Each is a sign that someone who may have been a resident or a fireman tried to protect a house or prevent a fire from the bushes, leaves and mulch that surrounds every house.

I am trained to search for these signs and to see places where building materials and homes were tested by fire, which result from glittering or the radiant heat from the burning of nearby buildings. In the weeks I made two trips to the fires of Eaton and Palisades after looking for examples in which surviving houses of the wildness of the fire and signs of a defending space and hardship withstand.

On March 11th, at 10 a.m., I will share some of my observations and examine critical strategies for reducing brand reduction in all of California and other hard -working areas. Use this link to register for this webinar for this webinar.

Notes in the ashes, signs of hope and resilience of the community

During my visits to LA, I found evidence that houses and yards could be designed, serviced and retrofitted to resist warmth, embers and flames. Among the ashes there are signs of hope and actions that we can do to help our houses resist future forest fires.

First of all, our structures (e.g. house, garage and warehouse) – which are equipped by the edge of the wall, under our decks and five feet – are really important. Fire finds it difficult to reach our houses if there are no stored combustible materials, mulch, wooden plants or attached wooden stands. In defending space we call this “Zone zero“And it is the most important area to create and wait.

The windows were the weak connection between both the Eaton and Palisades, in which people were generally built with stucco or stucco-like cladding products that are generally less susceptible to fire. With a bright heat of adjacent burning buildings or landscaping, the heat broke the window panes or deformed the glazing on the vinyl windows so that the glass panes fall out. As soon as there is an opening in the building, fire can enter the house.

If a house, a garage or a warehouse burns within 25 feet from another, the heat of this building can ignite the siding and break the glass in a window. We call this “radiant warmth”. In LA where I saw Double, tempered glass window And not combined siding, houses survived.

With radiation heat exposure, dual-paned windows achieve far better than single-single windows that were built in buildings that were built before the 1970s (and for most houses in these fire footprints). I saw many houses that were exposed to heat from a nearby building because the individual windows described and improved on dual panel glass. Temperized glass would be the best material choice in which buildings lie close together.

Plants, wooden fences and bender plates that define planting areas create beauty, but fire can follow these objects for structure. When involved in these elements in our farms, make sure these elements are Not linked so that the fire can follow them like a wick to our structures. Replace wooden gates that are on the house with metal. Place plants in groups or islands that are separated from the house and each other.

Each building can be a vector or a future radiation heat source. It is important for take care of all buildingsEven if you have little financial value. For example, an inflamed garden shed near the house can become a heat source for the house.

Measures must be taken and it is the responsibility of everyone

I didn't see many houses in both Eaton and Palisades fires that survived without evidence of any kind of defense measures. I wrestled with what message that sends. In the end, I came to the conclusion that the message was that small actions in the preparation – combined with a little additional help of a fire brigade professional – were the key to preventing and limiting damage.

In fires like this, in which the wind carries embers everywhere and the fire staff is geared towards helping everyone, increases any small action that the homeowner has taken to prepare for the fire, the likelihood that a firefighter will meet a second fraction and take the time to defend a building. Or you can come to the conclusion that the building does not need help because it is well prepared.

I visited the locations of other catastrophic fires such as the Tubbs Fire 2017 in Santa Rosa, the Camp Fire 2018 in Paradise and the 2021 Marshall Fire in Colorado. Where did I land after examining another scene of devastation?

Fire adjustment accepts adaptation. We have to do some things differently. This is not an action for others; It is an action for everyone. We have learned to use seat belts and car seats and to sneeze into our elbows and not in our hands.

We can change the behavior to protect those who are most important to us and in our houses. Is it possible to build or retrofit houses to resist hurricane winds with hot embers? My answer is. I cannot predict that every house will survive, but many more. And these collective measures are worth the investment.

Yana Valachovic is district director and Forest Advisor of the Cooperative Expansion of the University of California in the counties Humboldt and DEL Norte as well as a member of the Fire Networks from UC Anr with a specialty of the resistance of the community and the built environment. Valachovic is enthusiastic about finding solutions for challenging problems that have rooted their skills in forestry, natural resources and sociological research, designs and reduction of the built environment for the resistance of the forest fire as well as their years in the district government and the commitment of the community.

She is a member of the Waldfeuer-Task Force Forest Resilience and other working groups of state fire policy as well as the co-director of the North California region of California Fire Science Consortium. Valachovic has co-established papers on fire behavior in California forests and the interface of fire performance in house and landscape design. It is active in Californian political development and was a technical resource for bioenergy, forest management, hardening and improvements in reasonable space legislation.