Fire and wind will definitely form the future of Los Angeles as the world warms up.
Los Angeles had begun taking measures to prepare. However, there are lessons that can be learned from other cities. Take care of your neighbors; make it easier to get out of the harm.
One of the major issues is that it is necessary to adopt such plans widely. One house is as safe as the next house. “If your neighbor does nothing, if you do so, if you are burning, if you create a very shining heat, you will burn,” the head of Bosman, Montana, who advises the city. Waters’ economics Kimiko Barrett said. Reduce the risk of damage to the wildfire.
Neighbors are important. Building standards and zoning rules are important. But probably, most of all, money is important. Construction in the age of fire can be expensive, and in many cases it is out of hand for many housing owners living in a community where fire is likely to occur.
Please look hard at the landscape
Boulder Corporation, Colorado, has learned several lessons from recent fires.
The pine needles and debris around the house quickly spread the flame. The bushes of the juniper explode in the fire. In fact, the county authorities call the juniper a “gasoline plant.” Fire packed under the deck can ignite the house and destroy it.
The county spent a few years, cleared the fragments, and persuaded the juniper to tear. Voters agree to raise sales taxes to support the payment.
Los Angeles has its own problem plants: palms. Many palm seeds are very difficult to put out when they ignite. In areas where fire is easy to get on, it should be Avoid completely, According to the Los Angeles County Fire Station.
San Diego County prohibits green -and even shrines- Around about 5 feet buildings And it is necessary to have at least 10 feet in the trees.
Berkeley, California, sends fire inspectors to the most likely areas to exhale the danger. A dead brush less than 5 feet from home. A flammable vegetation that threatens the property of the neighbor by lying on the fence line. High shrubs that can send flames are running up trees.
There are restrictions. Live oak is protected by law. In other words, it cannot be reduced. In a regional community, like Berkeley, a California state has issued a regulation to implement the 2023 law designed to minimize fire damage by prescribing landscape management standards. I’m still waiting for to do. The city is planning to strengthen regulations in the next few weeks, and housing owners have demanded maintaining 5 feet fire -resistant areas around all houses in the hills. Masu. In other words, there are no multi, shrubs, propanked tanks, or wood. A fine is imposed on the violation. The city council has not yet decided.
“If I can hold a writer and smoke or smoke, it should not be there,” he said, in charge of the most intense area in the wilderness, which is the most likely area in the city. Colin Arnold said, assistant and firefighting chief. Wildland Urban interface
Build a safer house
The house is flammable, but it can reduce the combustibility.
Concrete, stacks, and engineering wood are better than traditional wood frames. A small number of architects, including Avia Swace in Santa Monica, provide both protection from fire and cooperate with the compressed soil, also known as Ramd Earth, avoiding concrete emissions. Clon clay tiles, concrete, or metal roofs are often lifted on flames. Laminated glass windows can reduce the radiation heat pressed against the house during a fire.
Design is also important. The eaves and overhangs can be trapped in the remaining fire. Therefore, architects are built and sealed in areas where such fire is likely to occur. Mitchell Rochelow, an architect -based architect in California, is a “physical insurance contract” when it is becoming more and more difficult to compensate for insurance in a community where fire is likely to occur. Say.
The ventilation is frequently culprit. 。 Low -cost correction, such as a fire -resistant vent with a mesh screen, can prevent large remaining fire from flying, but not always effective. Close the heat.
Building standards are more and more mandatory for non -combustible roofs and siding. (California has the strictest thing.) However, the problem is that most houses in the United States were built before modern building standards. Upgrading an existing house for the age of fire means removing flammable siding and roof. It is an expensive proposal.
I am proud of improvement
Think of it as a smart version of fire to catch up with Jones.
In Boulder County, housing owners are certified by the county program, Wildfire Partners, juniper junking, low -combustible shrubs, fireproof roofs, or slaves the deck -resistant sealant. There is a fire -resistant practice.
The certification comes with a yard sign to be displayed. This is a method of fine -tuning other people in the neighborhood and adopting the same practice.
There are also potential rewards. Certification is a way to keep the house owner’s insurance, and there are more risks in many communities in the western United States. “The cost of remodeling is very real,” said the county member Ashley Starzmann. “The cost of losing insurance is also very realistic.”
Upgrade a dangerous power line
Power line and utility pole have been in charge of the most destructive fire in California in recent years.
Many of the infrastructure were built in the 1960s and 1970s, and repaired urgently. Utility is facing the barrage of the lawsuit in some aftermath of these fires. This claims that ALTADENA residents complained of Edison in Southern California, causing utility equipment to have caused an Eaton fire that destroyed 5,000 buildings in the area. (Edison said he was investigating the cause of the fire.)
Various corrections are possible, from the pole of fire resistance to filling the electric line (very expensive) to the protection layer (inexpensive but low safety).
The bipartisan infrastructure has secured $ 3.5 billion for power grid upgrades. This is only a part of the Los Angeles’s latest fire tag of $ 250 billion.
Review the road
The stool road and the narrow bending street are characteristics of many regions pressed in the wilderness, including the hills of Berkeley. That’s a problem when people need to go outside and have the first respondents.
“There is no place to put a new road,” said Arnold. “It’s a very dense community built without keeping evacuation in mind.”
If the road cannot be expanded, you can keep them clearly for the first response to enter and exit. Los Angeles Fire Department No parking on the street is prohibited On some areas on a windy day with a high risk of fire.
Rancho Santa Fe, a wealthy suburb of San Diego, tried to solve the problem by always keeping most of the roadside roads. no On the street parking is allowed If there is not enough width for the streets to enter and leave.
I know when to leave
The bush fire has long been common in Australia’s hot and dry southeast for a long time. However, no one had hurt the Black Saturday fire that broke out in Victoria in February 2009. The flame killed more than 170 people, led to a rewriting of the state evacuation protocol.
On a high -risk day, people living in the forest area are encouraged to leave home before smoke and flames. The warning will be broadcast on TV.
Residents recommend preparing an official state government’s emergency preparation app. This emphasizes when to be empty. I saw the recent Thursday morning app 10 notifications of the entire stateFrom the warning to “leave immediately” to “monitor the conditions” elsewhere.
In contrast, Los Angeles residents received an incorrect evacuation warning by several text messages of the worst fire era. More reliability was a private app built by non -profit organizations.
“We want people to make good decisions before the fire, not bad decisions during the fire,” said Luke Hagarti, a spokesman at the State Management Center.
A small number of schools and fire departments are designated as community fire facilities. And there is a Bushfire location named the last resort for those who are behind until the fire arrives at home. Usually, it is an open field with no trees or structures to light. However, as the county fire department warns on the website, the last resort site is “not guarantee safety.”
Build more houses
Los Angeles has been facing more sharp needs for many houses. For many years, the development has been permitted for development in areas where fire is likely to occur, and the demand has been met by making fires reconstructed after the fire runs through these areas.
The latest fire has exceeded the need. The estimated 10,000 houses were destroyed, tens of thousands of people needed evacuation centers, and rents and housing prices were raised in one of the most expensive real estate markets in Japan.
And among the strictest choices faced by Los Angeles, there is a place to build a house that does not easily rise in the flame.
Michael Mamville, a professor of the city planning of the University of California, Los Angeles, states: One is to limit the development of areas where fire is likely to occur. The other is to allow more dense houses in a dangerous area in a nearby flat area zoned by a detached house. Manville said it was a “non -political non -star”.
