Early adopters of 'zone zero' fared better in L.A. County fires, insurance-backed investigation finds

"As the Eaton and Palisades fires rapidly jumped between tightly packed houses, the proactive steps some residents took to retrofit their homes with fire-resistant building materials and to clear flammable brush became a significant indicator of a home's fate. Early adopters who cleared vegetation and flammable materials within the first five feet of their houses' walls - in line with draft rules for the state's hotly debated "zone zero" regulations - fared better than those who didn't,"

"Over a week in January, while the fires were still burning, the insurance team inspected more than 250 damaged, destroyed and unscathed homes in Altadena and Pacific Palisades. On properties where the majority of zone zero land was covered in vegetation and flammable materials, the fires destroyed 27% of homes; On properties with less than a quarter of zone zero covered, only 9% were destroyed."

"The Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety, an independent research nonprofit funded by the insurance industry, performed similar investigations for Colorado's 2012 Waldo Canyon fire, Hawaii's 2023 Lahaina fire and California's Tubbs, Camp and Woolsey fires of 2017 and 2018. While a handful of recent studies have found homes with sparse vegetation in zone zero were more likely to survive fires, skeptics say it does not yet amount to a scientific consensus."

"Travis Longcore, senior associate director and an adjunct professor at the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, cautioned that the insurance nonprofit's results are only exploratory: The team did not analyze whether other factors, such as the age of the homes, were influencing their zone zero analysis, and how the nonprofit characterizes zone zero for its report, he noted, does not exactly mirror California's draft regulations."

Rapid house-to-house fires in Altadena and Pacific Palisades revealed a strong correlation between immediate perimeter mitigation and home survival. Inspectors catalogued more than 250 homes and found that properties with the majority of the first five-foot 'zone zero' covered in vegetation and flammable materials experienced 27% destruction, while those with under 25% coverage saw only 9% destroyed. Early adopters who retrofitted with fire-resistant materials and cleared flammable brush fared better. The Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety has performed similar post-fire investigations in Colorado, Hawaii and California. Some researchers caution the findings remain exploratory and note potential confounding factors and regulatory definition differences.

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