FIRE PREVENTION TIPS AS A RESULT OF WATCHING MALIBU COVERAGE

I know a fireman who was considering installing a heat activated sprinkler system in his home!

 

If the collection is valuable enough, why not have an underground garage with concrete doors? Seems fire proof enough. Have sump pumps just in case there's ever a concern for flooding I suppose. Throw in something like DuPont FM200 fire suppression system in case a fire starts in the garage as it's a clean agent and wont' mess up whatever it gets on.

 

I live close to the Malibu fires in Santa Monica and was thinking about this today... If you have a swimming pool add some kind of high capacity pumps and sprinklers on your roof / house ledges to aim on the sides and in ground to aim up on the walls using the water in the pool (also have the main watrer supply to the house dump full on into the pool when it is activated. This could probably be built for $5k-15k providing you have the swimming pool. I'd think this would be the most effective, a halon system wouldn't really work for this type of fire.

Edit: you'd need a small diesel genertor to power this, odds are you'll not have any power.

 

Only works as long as there is pressure in the main.

 

I hope your house and car made out ok.. sounds like a bad situation... One thing to keep in mind you can do all the protection you want but unless you can keep them in a heat controlled environment I think you will still suffer lots of damage.. these fires look to burn hot and quick...

 

If anyone's piling old magazines onto their Gullwing, I'd like to volunteer to take over as caretaker.

 

only dad's hot rod magazines

 

Still have mine. There was plenty of how to and history in the old mags!

 

Also, I wouldn't count on concrete. Some of those firestorms look intense. Probably better to have an exit plan and replacement value insurance.

 

The smoke has been crazy, worst I've seen its like Blade Runner in the Bay Area!

 

Here, where I live (Frisco Tx), indoor fire sprinklers are mandatory (in new construction homes) if your house has a total footprint over 6000 sqft. That's both A/C and non A/C space (garages count in the total).

They install them everywhere in the living spaces -- rooms, hallways, closets, bath rooms, etc. They even installed one inside the walls/structure that surrounds the indoor fireplace. Ironically -- they don't install them in the garages. Perhaps because they are activated at 135 degrees, which may be reachable in an enclosed garage that is not cooled in the summer.

Sid

 

I've often wondered the same thing. It would be easy to build such a system, which is basically not much more than a lawn irrigation system. Just elevated somewhat. You could even have the runoff from the roof directed back into the pool (or holding tank) via gutters and pipes.

I really don't get why people that can afford expensive houses, in fire-prone areas, don't do this. Perhaps CA has some rule/regulation against homeowners protecting their property? Maybe there would be a sprinkler tax? A fine for saving your house while others burn?

Sid

 

This has been code in California since 2004 for new construction homes. Can't remember if garage is required but we had them installed in ours when we built the home in 2005.

 

One thing that would help is to stop using cedar shingles.

 

Supposedly over 1,000 people are missing/unaccounted for, which is unbelievable. Hopefully they just haven't been able to track those people staying elsewhere.

Slate is pretty expensive, but lasts over a hundred years. It was common in Maryland on the older homes where I lived.

 

First; hold some positive thoughts for those burned out of house & home. RIP to those who didn't get out.
Second, some good ideas in this thread, but really only value for those who have time to act.......
In the case of the Camp Fire in norcal, evacuation warnings were few and late; the fire was wind-driven, moving at over 100 yds/minute, and so hot that houses were igniting from the inside due to the heat! No matter the smarts and complexity of your pump/sprinkler system (to say nothing of your water source) the fire went right past/through your house & garage. Literally nothing could stop it. Possibly some exotic explosive foam retardant system to fill the space wall to wall, but when/who/how? You should/would be gone by then, no power for activation..... Full concrete underground bunker? Temps over 2000º.......your cars are probably self-immolating even in their bunker..... For many, there was simply no hope of saving anything, let alone a car or cars that might not even start without some coaxing.
(And spare a thought for those of us who also have our classic mahogany speedboats, on a trailer yes, but in the barn, 150 feet away, and the truck might not be the most accessible vehicle available when the fire is nipping at your heels!)

 

I live in Malibu Canyon and my home narrowly escaped burning down, although my home sustained smoke damage, many of my neighbors were not so lucky and lost everything.

This was an extremely fast moving fire powered by high winds, burning hundreds of acres every few mins. Parts of Malibu look like a nuclear fire storm hit it. Trees are burnt to a crisp while all still leaning in the direction that the wind was blowing. Aside from the logical steps of clearing brush, trees, and debris from your property year round, there was little you could do to prevent your home from burning in this type of fire. I was lucky. That simple.

In a fire like this, when it's time to evacuate, you grab your family and leave. As much as I love my cars, they were the last thing on my mind at that time. Moving them was not an option.

That being said, earlier in the evening before we evacuated, I did move all my cars into the garage, covered them and made sure off windows and sunroofs were closed. That most definitely helped because my cars sustained ZERO smoke damage to their interiors even though my garage smells like someone hosted a campfire in it.

Even luckier for Ferrari purposes, my 458 was away at the dealer getting its maintenance!

 

Great post!

I’m glad you made it with only smoke damage.

Matt

 

Interior fire suppression systems are not going to do much in the instances that have been experienced in California. They are intended and design to supress fires that originate inside the home; e.g. idiot smoking in bed etc. For a garage I'd look at a water fog system. (Halon is a banned substance, CO2 will kill you and everything else will cause considerable water damage; i.e. whilst the fire maybe out, your car will be underwater!!) That said these systems are not simple and the average person is not going to be able to design and install one.

In these horrendous conditions in California all you are looking at doing is boundary cooling, i.e. cooling the outside of the property to stop it catching fire. But the only way you would be able to do this without putting yourself at considerable risk is via an automatic system, because if its hot enough that you need to boundary cool you will not want to be there even if you could. Pool idea is a good one, but would be dependant on a) continuous power supply and b) your system not melting in such intense heat; both doubtful. If you are designing from scratch go for an underground garage structure to minimise heat exposure; with, as said above, suitable sump drainage if the fire fighters douse your building down probably battery powered.

As Manor says above, if you are unfortunate enough to find yourself in these circumstances your cars will be the last thing on your mind; and at the end of the day that is why they are insured.

(My sympathies to all those effected)