KB Home unveils its first 'fire-resilient' community in Southern California

Only a few months after furious forest fires had destroyed thousands of houses in the vicinity of Los Angeles, in California, in California KB at home reveals what it calls its first “wildfire resilient” community.

The development, in Escondido, just outside San Diego, will have 64 single-family homes when they are completed that everyone meets the Wildfire Resilience Standards developed by the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS), a non-profit, scientific research and communication organization supported by insurers. These standards are designed to protect the houses against the three most important sources of ignition during a natural fire: flying sintels, flames and radiant heat.

A handful of houses in development are now completed, with around 20 houses that have already been sold. Three homeowners have been withdrawn, according to KB Home.

The houses are built with covered gutters, closed roof edges, non-conflicting cladding-such as stucco and fiber cement-tilted glass windows and non-combination patios, doors and roofing. They have six-inch vertical clearance using the concrete foundation, stucco and stone. They also contain a defensible space with low -tree vegetation on at least 5 feet of the houses. Metal charging is used in the neighborhood.

Steve Ruffner, regional general manager of the Coastal Division of KB Home, said that he and his colleagues saw a fire -resistant home demonstration on the Pacific Coast Builders Conference last summer and were impressed by the chance that this kind of community presented. Because KB Home had already broken ground about the development, they had to change quickly to record the firefighting components.

“We had to change the architecture on the fly to a more stucco-oriented architecture with fire-resistant shutters, or fire-free shutters and doors and hardened windows. We could do that very quickly with the city because they wanted to work with us. They really understood that this was important for their city,” Ruffner said.

He called it more a research and development project to see what the costs can be and how they can work with trading partners to lower those costs, although he would not say how much those costs increased.

The houses vary from $ 1 million to the low millions, which is usually a relocation price in that area for single -family homes, detached houses.

“We try to get the costs for a reasonable place, because we really specialize in first buyers and first moving buyers. So we want to ensure that we can get this in a good place where it is affordable to do it and it also has a good repayment to the customer in a form of safety,” he added.

As climate change causes serious drought in more areas of the country, the focus shifts to fire -resistant houses and communities.

During the Palisades Fire in January, some houses that were specifically built according to fire -resistant standards remained intact while everything around them was destroyed. However, these types of houses are largely once due to adapted builders.

According to IBHS, progress has been made in California in California.

Under the specifications, houses are at a distance of 10 feet apart to delay the progress of a fire.

“This subdivision built by KB Home, it is really the test bed to show and demonstrate this,” said Roy Wright, CEO of IBHS. “I know that KB Home already has two other projects here in Escondido, looking at duplexes and other types of city houses, and I imagine that other builders will follow quickly. They are going to build the houses that Californians want to buy.”

Wright emphasized that part of the draw is not only to build a house that is survival, but also a house that is insured. Insurance companies draw in large numbers from California, as a result of which homeowners rise at rising costs and some without insurance.

Although the houses are invoiced as a fire brigade, this does not mean that they are completely risk -free. Homeowners and cities will have to make changes when it comes to non-combinable landscape architecture, heights and even design. The real test will come in the future if the community is in line with a natural fire.

“Nothing is ever fire -resistant. We always try to just try to limit those paths of destruction,” Wright said.