Letters from Our Readers

"Not long ago, I saw a new wood-frame house going up in the Palisades. When will we stop allowing the construction of combustible wooden boxes in combustible landscapes? Future-oriented public policies are in order: the preventable loss of thousands of structures threatens the stability of the insurance system, diverts public funding and attention from other important issues, and causes great suffering and even death. Fire-resistant materials like metal, concrete, masonry, and tile are common-let's encourage people to use them."

"Goodyear's description of the despair over useless fire hydrants alludes to a fundamental issue when it comes to controlling urban conflagrations: water management. Building codes certainly need to be updated so that houses themselves are less flammable, but water should also be regulated in order to prevent rather than just fight fires. As much as eighty per cent of the water California manages, according to the state, is allocated to agriculture, which makes up less than five per cent of the economy."

"A much larger fraction of this resource should be earmarked for municipalities to create hydrated green infrastructure. It is important to recognize the dry climate and to use drought-tolerant plants, but within urban environments let's not try to replicate the native wildlands that have evolved with fires. Cities are human ecologies, and people need spaces that are livable, green, and flame-resilient."

A homeowner recounts losing a house in California wildfires and recalls designing replacement homes after the 1991 Oakland Hills fire. Building codes allowed only modest increases in fire resistance for rebuilt homes decades ago, and similar leniency persists. New wooden houses continue to rise in fire-prone landscapes. Fire-resistant materials such as metal, concrete, masonry, and tile should be encouraged. Water management is central to controlling urban conflagrations. A large share of California's water goes to agriculture; a greater fraction should be allocated to municipalities to create hydrated, drought-tolerant green infrastructure that preserves livable, flame-resilient urban spaces.

Read at The New Yorker