Two small mock homes stood outside the West Metro Fire Rescue Training Center in Lakewood on Thursday. Firefighters intentionally lit the mulch and surrounding plants on fire in front of both of them, but only one home went up in flames.
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That home, constructed with normal building materials, was quickly fully engulfed in large flames with smoke and soot flying everywhere. It had a wood fence, spare firewood up against the side of the house, and evergreens on either side.
The other home, however, was essentially untouched. It was designed with wildfire in mind – plants are five feet away, and it used multi-paned glass and a metal fence.
The gathering of local and state fire leaders aimed to show what happens when a home is built with wildfire-conscious materials. More Colorado homeowners and builders are considering these changes as wildfires become more intense.
“The fire problem in reality has changed from a natural resource problem to a public safety crisis,” Mike Morgan, the director of Colorado’s Division of Fire Prevention and Control, said. “We're destroying communities. We have to look at this differently and through a different lens if we're going to be successful in this.”
The wildfire-mitigated home was designed by the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety, a nonprofit that is funded by the property insurance industry to test homes against the elements and strengthen them. While there’s been a lot of research on how fires behave inside buildings, there’s still more work to be done on the varying factors that can move and impact a fire outside a building.
“We bring the science about what is more likely to survive, and the things that are survivable are insurable,” the institute’s CEO, Roy Wright, said. “We don't make the fire stop with this science; rather, we narrow its impact and give the fire services that are on the front line that possibility to beat (it) down.”
New builds in the state have to comply with a minimum fire building code enacted in July. Some communities are even considering putting additional regulations in place, like Lyons. But even though towns and cities may offer rebates for home retrofits or wildfire adaptations, swapping out a roof or siding on a current home is not cheap.
Morgan said the key is to achieve both safety and affordability. He believes each homeowner should do something to protect their home, but it looks different from house to house.
“If more trees around me is important to me, then I probably need to be using better construction materials to protect my home,” Morgan said. “If having trees around is not super important to me, then you can probably relax some of the building materials that you're using.”
Yet, other fire leaders believe more work needs to be done to address vulnerabilities. The institute has released its own technical standards for what homeowners and builders should consider.
“Wildfire protection isn't one action; it's a system of actions,” Steve Hawks, Senior Director for Wildfire with the institute, said. “So all the components: the roof, the vents, the siding, the first five feet out from the walls of the house, they all matter in this system of protecting a home.”
No matter what the action looks like, it’s becoming more important than ever that this is a team sport – for both homeowners and builders, Morgan said.
“We often think it's just me. But how we prepare for fire at our individual home or business can impact our neighbors, our entire community,” Morgan said. “While we don't have a smoking gun at the moment with existing construction, I think the more we learn, the more we're going to have opportunities to find ways to make homes safer in these types of environments.”
The wildfire mitigated home is already being put to the test in real life. A new 143-unit subdivision in Jefferson County called Mountain Village is working to earn the designation of Colorado’s first fully wildfire-prepared neighborhood.
