[em-bee]

i have been wondering about this. how well do concrete and other less flammable materials actually help in a fire storm like this? wouldn't much of the house still get damaged enough that you may well have to rebuild anyways? or is the difference enough to keep, say, 50% of the houses in a reusable state as opposed to losing all of them?

[foobarian]

I've been wondering how fire manages to damage a stucco/stone house in the first place, especially in some of the cases where there wasn't much vegetation around. The scale of the fire must be quite immense and counterintuitive to get the outcome seen on news photos/footage.

[WalterBright]

I'm speculating, but it could be the wooden eves, window frames, and wooden doors that allow the fire to get a foothold. If the roof is vented, it may suck in burning embers.