American Building Standards and Wildfires

[RayWright]

On 1/11/2025 at 1:47 PM, dingdongrb said:

Maybe those in Japan should start migrating to the UK soon?

UK not recommended due to all the floods.

[atpeace]

On 1/13/2025 at 8:43 PM, Yellowtail said:

Yes, that why all the homes in Thailand are cement, because all Thais care about is safety, they would not own a frame house even if it cost a tenth of what a cement house costs. It the same in India and China. price is not object when it comes to fire safety.  

Think you are being sarcastic 🙂  Not sure what you are getting at. 

[AgMech Cowboy]

On 1/11/2025 at 1:04 PM, Flyguy330 said:

Cardboard interiors - they call 'sheet rock', which is NOT rock. It's plasterboard, and easily lit up.

You're poorly informed about sheetrock, which makes me question the rest of your diatribe. Yes, the houses a built with a wood framing. I cannot refute that comment, but I've never been around roof shingles made of wood and most of the really rich homes use a brick exterior or even stucco.

 

From patchmaster.com, "Sheetrock, or drywall, is considered noncombustible and has fire-resistant properties, but it can still burn under extreme conditions. Standard drywall can slow the spread of fire for up to one hour, while fire-rated types like Type X and Type C offer even greater resistance."

[wavodavo]

On 1/11/2025 at 4:12 PM, BritManToo said:

When you build your houses and roofs of wood, fire is a problem.

Good point about timber and other flammable materials in these houses but the fire was ferocious and and was pushed by a 100 mph wind and  would have had a temperature in the thousand of degrees and I doubt even a steel frame and roofed house would have fared any better. In such a fire the steel in a building melts and buckles from the heat. I also I heard the reporters say that a lot of the mansions were many years old when timber was the main material.The whole reason this was so bad is that people had large trees and high dry grass  in there back yard and all around which backed onto a hill. Also there was a lot of huge trees on the footpaths that caught fire and the wind blew the embers across the road and set that house on fire....but California is too green to clear any high grass and make fire breaks.

[SLOWHAND225]

On 1/11/2025 at 1:04 PM, Flyguy330 said:

So, we've all seen the destruction in California caused by the wildfires. Whole neighbourhoods literally levelled. Not a brick standing on top of another - except for the bizarre sight of brick chimney breasts rising up out of the flattened ash vista.

 

They're all so shocked.

The houses in the neighbourhood cost Millions!

Did I say houses? Man - I mean MANSIONS!! CELEBRITY MANSIONS!

All evaporated. Atomised. Gone.

How could it happen?!? It's so SHOCKING!

 

Well, if you've ever seen a building being erected in the US (besides skyscrapers) you'll probably have gazed in wonder at how they're built. All they consist of is wood.

Wood frame.

Wood exterior cladding.

Wood roofs, often with wood shingles for tiling.

Cardboard interiors - they call 'sheet rock', which is NOT rock. It's plasterboard, and easily lit up.

 

So when you have hundreds of MANSIONS (lol) crammed together in dry forest areas, and a spark ignites one - the whole lot can quickly go up too.

And wood likes to burn. And when it burns it burns completely. And all that's left is ash. As we can see.

 

There's a pic floating around of the Malibu beachfront, with ONE house standing, and all the next door multi million dollar 'mansions' burned to ash.

A MIRACLE! they say....

 

No it's not. It's basic common sense. It's the only house in the row made of concrete.

 

Why do Americans build these 5hitty structures? How can the 'building code' allow WOOD structures to be built in high fire risk zones? How can a pile of matchwood be called a MANSION, and carry million dollar valuations?

All fake, like so much else about the USofA.

 

Wood shingles haven't been  done since the 70's
Wood siding went out with the 70's too. Hardi board looks like wood but is cement. 
Sheetrock is actually fire rated and doesn't burn.

The wind makes the heat from these fires is enough to melt steel, even your concrete walls wouldn't survive that.

They wouldn't be in a high risk fire zone if the forestry practices had been followed.  Its their own fault