Community Rebuilding After the Palisades Fire

Homeowners who lost houses in the January Palisades fire are rebuilding with an eye toward making their new homes fire-resistant, and several are sharing what they've learned with the wider community. A group called Team Palisades, formed after the fire, connects neighbors to share resources and support each other through the rebuilding process.

Architect and designer May Sung, who lost two homes, is rebuilding using standards from the Insurance Institute for Building & Home Safety (IBHS). Her plans include a standing-seam metal roof, steel dual-tempered glass doors and windows, walls rated for two hours of fire resistance, no roof eaves, and five feet of clear space around the house (sometimes called Zone 0). Neighbor Sue Kohl is further along in rebuilding, using similar measures: metal gates, fiber-cement siding, no open eaves, double-pane metal windows, interior sprinklers, a fire-resistant roof, and the same five-foot defensible space. A third neighbor, Allison Holdorff Polhill, is rebuilding to her home's original footprint with her architect, motivated partly by insurance costs after being dropped by her carrier and moving to California's FAIR Plan.

These rebuilding stories point to a broader pattern for anyone in a fire-prone area: features like fire-resistant roofing, metal or tempered-glass windows and doors, non-combustible siding, no exposed eaves, and cleared space immediately around the house are becoming common in fire recovery and rebuilding, and may be worth researching if you live in a similar risk zone.