They said they deconstructed the existing home, donated the parts to Habitat for Humanity and built their current home.
Both Kovac and Maher are avid environmentalists and Kovac's architecture firm, Kovac Studio, specializes in hillside homes and environmental design.
They used their home as a project to explore sustainable systems and wildfire resilience.
Here are the specific fire resilient features utilized on their home, as outlined by Kovac:
"So we have fiber cement siding that is extremely fire resilient. We have a very high performance commercial class A roof. We have a planted green roof which is a very fire resilient feature. We have commercial glazing, insulated glass that prevents radiating heat going through the windows and igniting the house from within and on the back of the house, we were always concerned a fire would approach, which it did, from the bottom of the hill up, so we have a Phos-Chek fire retardant system that we were able to call and activate," Kovac explained.
They said their home is LEDE platinum certified. LEDE stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.
Kovac and Maher said because of these fire resilient features, their home survived.
"Seeing all our friends' and neighbors' houses gone is brutal," Kovac said.
They're hoping to highlight ways others can protect their homes in fire prone areas.
"I think people's reactions and realization lag behind the science, so I think science was warning us of this a long time ago, and we are on an exponential curve. Things beyond our imagination are going to continue to happen, so we need to look reality in the face and prepare ourselves," Maher said.
"The good news is - we can do this. I mean architecturally as a construction industry, there are not hugely expensive ways to rebuild in a way to make sure this doesn't happen again," Kovac said.