However, construction of homes in WUI areas must subscribe to a higher standard of fire resilience to increase the odds of preserving structures and providing occupants additional time to find safety. Breen and Good understood this and made certain their material selection and the assembly design supported their needs for optimal fire resilience, as well as thermal performance. They chose to go beyond state/local code requirements to ensure their investment in their forever home would have greater protection in the event of fire.
The decision to look beyond state/local code requirements was a smart one, as the focus is often placed on materials alone, with the thought that if noncombustible siding materials are selected, the rest of the home is safe. However, fire protection is much more complicated than that.
What does the code say?
Building codes set minimum requirements for many construction features, such as fire protection. They outline the basic requirements a home must meet to be up to code, such as the performance expectations for allowable materials and assemblies, and the required technical standards for construction, such as those which have been adopted into the code and published by ASTM and the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA).
The bottom line: codes are not enough; building or rebuilding a home with the greatest possible fire resilience is voluntary. One’s approach to this is predicated on a concerted effort to learn and understand best practices to address fire resilience.
Take a holistic approach
Specifying fire-resistant materials for the building envelope is a good place to start. However, best practices today demand more. This includes considering fire safety at the start of the design process—it cannot be an afterthought—and taking a holistic approach to building in WUI zones. What does a holistic approach look like? Architects and builders need to think differently about the house design, especially if they are rebuilding after a fire. How can one design a better building to provide a greater opportunity to stop fire from penetrating the structure and, in the worst-case scenario, buy additional time for occupants to get to safety? It requires, in part, understanding how homes catch fire. Then, it is important to look at materials to determine whether they are combustible or noncombustible, if they are ignition or fire-resistant, and whether they have low or high flame-propagation rates. The next step is a challenging one: taking this information into account while designing fire-resistant assemblies.
