As Palisades, Altadena rebuild, learnings from Paradise and OC serve as fire-resiliency examples
LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Paradise, California lost 90% of its homes as a result of the Camp Fire in 2018. The township continues to rebuild with fire safety at the forefront of almost every decision.
Hundreds of thousands of trees have been removed. Power lines are being placed underground within city limits. Roadways have been reconfigured to make for easier escape routes if and when there's another fire. And homes there are built to a fire-resistant standard never seen before in the United States. Not every decision was welcome, but they were considered important.
"There certainly was significant pushback and we worked with people for a long time to determine what is the proper level for this, because there's a lot of things you can do to make your home, your community more fire resilient, but there's a balance to find," explained Paradise recovery director Colette Curtis.
MORE: 'Build back safer' regulations guide Paradise's recovery after fire
Altadena and Palisades can learn a lot from Paradise on how to rebuild a fire resilient town destroyed by fire, but in Orange County, the community of Orchard Hills can also provide significant guidance on how to build a fire resilient town. And their efforts have already been tested.
"It is 100% a collaborative effort from the get-go," explained Orange County Fire Authority Captain Sean Doran.
Orchard Hills is a planned community in Orange County that first broke ground in 2014. Developers chose to build homes exceeding the required fire standards for their location in Irvine and sought guidance on fire safety from the Orange County Fire Authority.
"If we can fight that fire, if you will, with our fuel modification, and the way we plan the neighborhoods before we even have to get the actual water on the fire, that's all part of it. We want to prevent that fire from actually getting to the homes," Doran said.
Their plans were tested in 2020 when the Silverado Fire spread to the community's doorstep but didn't damage a single residence in the community.
"I was actually on a fire engine in Orchard Hills during that fire and got to witness it first-hand how all of these features that were included as part of the planning just for these scenarios came to fruition and actually came to the defense of these communities," says Doran.
Fuel modification is the first line of defense. An area that in years past was an avocado orchard, kept some of the avocado trees to serve as a fire break.
Landscaping closer to the community uses succulent plants, open space and is frequently maintained to control growth.
Power lines are underground and the walls surrounding the community have tempered glass to deflect embers that could reach a backyard. Homes on the outskirts are built to handle radiant heat from an approaching fire while those within the community focus more on protecting the structure from flying embers.
There are seven-foot wide-pathways that are walled to provide access and protection for firefighters during a fire. Each safety choice works collectively to provide piece of mind to residents like Ron Nestor, who evacuated during the Silverado Fire.
"We're all preparing for earthquakes because that may happen, a great earthquake, but a fire is almost certain to happen every year, you can count on it, you can see it on the calendar. So yeah I think it's very important," Nestor said.
As Altadena and Palisades begin making decisions on the best way to rebuild their communities, lessons learned from great loss in Paradise and the indisputable success in Orchard Hills should serve as an example of the best way to move forward.
