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by nrki 518 days ago
Most rural houses in Australia are built this way. They still burn down.

I don't think anyone really understands how intense wildfires can get when fanned by wind. It will destroy almost anything.

See: Black Saturday bushfires, Australia.

> "it really made no difference whether the houses were brick or timber. In fact, with the speed of the fire front some timber houses fared better than brick as it moved too fast for the houses to catch, but the bricks exploded from the sudden change in temperature."

> "When you have a fire front coming through at 800C it'll melt your window seals and aluminum window frames. The glass will fall out then everything is on fire.

1 comments

In the LA fire most home fires were ignited by the trillions of red hot embers driven by the wind. If these embers can ignite a home then the house is lost. So the key is to make the house from materials that resist ignition from wind driven embers.