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Disaster Preparation Month - Fire or Conflagration & ICF Construction

By John Slocum

Real Estate Agent with Premiere Property Group, LLC - Vancouver Washington 88349

September 24, 2019 02:14 PM

Disaster Preparedness Month 2019 - Preparing with Insulated Concrete Form (ICF) Construction Part 2 - Wild Fires & Fire Storms

Continuing with our series on Disaster Preparedness this segment will discuss Wild Fires and Fire Storms; which have become somewhat too common out West in the modern era. These are typically fires that will start outside of the home or physical structure, then swell in size to overwhelm fire fighting efforts at containment.

Historically the Pacific Northwest has experienced some extremely large fires, such as the 1902 Yacolt Burn (about 230k acres burned) that hit Clark and Skamania counties; and the Tillamook Burn (about 270k acres burned) of 1933 that hit the North Oregon Coastal Mountain Range.

Prime conditions for these huge fires often occur in mid-to-late Summer, when we haven't had any rainfall for a while, and then a weather pattern sets up that sends strong, dry East winds through the region West of the Cascade Mountains. Match that up with a spark (like Lightning) or a carelessly tended fire, and the dry winds can get a multiple-structure fire or large blaze going in no time at all.

Large fires can also be quite possible right after a large, damaging earthquake. Gas lines will break and some will ignite, while many water main lines will break, making fire hydrants they serve useless - truly a bad combination. In fact, the bulk of the damage to San Francisco in their Great Earthquake of 1906 came from the fires that raged for 3 days afterwards.

Modern building codes typically have a new home only able to resist 15 minutes or so; to help prevent an outdoors fire from immediately igniting the home; or, causing the contents inside to combust from the extreme heat from outside. This approximately half-hour margin often allows the fire department to arrive and extinguish the fire outside and prevent damage to the main structure.

Typical new construction also tries to be more "Light-weight" by using Orient-Strand Board (which burns more readily) instead of Plywood; and Metal joints in Roof Trusses which can quickly deform when heated, causing the roof to collapse sooner.

Below I've assembled a few videos showing traditional Stick-Built homes involved in multiple-structure fires. The first video is long but shows how unprotected buildings with high amounts of wood (with almost no wind) can quickly catch fire and be completely burned to the ground:

Several Videos Showing Fires Involving Multiple Homes

From the above videos I trust you can see that a multiple-structure fire can come about from several causes, and not just a wild-land fire roaring into the outskirts of civilization.

How does ICF Construction Resist Fire? - The three key components of an Insulated Concrete Form (ICF) structure are: Concrete; Steel and Insulating Foam. The heat from most structure fires is typically not enough to trouble Concrete and Steel, and these two elements certainly won't be feeding the fire. Thus, a huge amount of "fire wood" / fuel (i.e. scores of 2x6's in the wall system) has been removed from the equation.

The insulating-foam for the form is treated with a fire-retardant to prevent combustion. It is possible to melt it however, as can be shown in some recent real-life examples. Cosmetic damage is possible - but, this damage is much less expensive to repair than with a home that has been burned to the ground.

The exterior of an ICF wall can be finished with a wide variety of materials, including traditional wood-lap siding. While the wood-lap can catch on fire, the main wall won't. Thus, we are typically seeing the more fire-resistant finishes such as Fiber-Cement Lap siding; Brick, or EIFS (Exterior Insulating Finishing System - "fake Stucco").

By building the exterior walls with ICF a huge source of fuel for a typical fire has been eliminated; along with a huge amount of fire-resistance built-in. However, a wild-fire can still find its way inside of an ICF built home if a few extra steps are not taken. One common point of failure has been found to be the Attic Vents that allowed sparks and embers to enter the Attic. Fire Forensic science has found that the relatively cooler attic air wants to suck in the hotter spark/ember laden air from outside. When the vents and screens are of proper design and installation, the fire-causing embers and sparks will stay outside - and protect the attic space.

Another way fire can enter an ICF home, or any other type of home, is through an open or damaged Window. Fire investigators in California found that single-pane windows can fail often enough with a strong fire; while a double-pane window provides better protection, with the outer pane taking damage, while the inner pane remains intact and keeping fire out of the home.

A final possible way for fire to enter an ICF home is the Roof System. Although it is possible to build the roof using ICF, more commonly the roof is very often a wood-truss system, with traditional wood-sheathing and shingles. To improve fire resistance for the roof system it is becoming more and more cost-effective to build an ICF roof; or a non-ICF concrete roof can be poured on a more traditional wood-truss (reinforced) system. To be sure, give the roof system a better chance by Not using Cedar Shingles, as cedar catches fire quite readily. In fact, one home owner in California bucked his HOA rules and replaced their worn-out Cedar rood with a fire resistant roof - and when the fires roared through that subdivision theirs was the only home standing!

As of the initial posting of this article I have not found videos of ICF homes surviving a fire(s), as not too many have built so far in fire-country. However, I did find one of a concrete home in Washington that survived a wildfire, with the home-owner safely inside the home at the time!

I have also included a very informative video by a US Forest Service scientist on how to take preventative steps to protect your home in wildfire country. As more relevant videos become available I'll add them to the playlist.

Videos Showing Wildfires and Fire Prevention

Unlike the lack of videos to put into a playlist, there are a goodly number of still-photos showing ICF homes surviving major fires. Copyright restrictions makes it difficult to get those images into this post. That said I'll let this one image from the 2006 San Diego fire speak volumes to the survivability of 3 ICF homes in a single neighborhood:

Three ICF Homes Survive the Great San Diego Fire of 2006

The above photo should have more than one meaning for us. To be sure, a stand-alone ICF home can survive while its next-door neighbors are turned into ashes. Beyond that, the two ICF homes next to each other help protect each other on their facing sides.

Imagine if or when entire neighborhoods are made of fire resistant ICF structures - a major wildfire will be facing a serious "Fuel Break" and may then be much easier to bring under control and extinguish.

As we've said previously ICF construction is a mature technology, providing excellent Energy Efficiency while protecting us from many disasters that nature can throw at us. Please follow us for more ICF survivability topics.

Please contact me with your comments questions, AND if you'd like to get started with an ICF Energy Efficient and Safe home!

Disaster Preparation Month - Pacific NW Earthquakes & ICF Construction

Disaster Preparation Resources -
https://www.ready.gov/
https://www.doh.wa.gov/Emergencies/BePreparedBeSafe/GetReady/HomeEmergencyPreparedness
https://www.clark.wa.gov/public-health/emergency-preparedness-and-response
https://www.cityofvancouver.us/fire/page/emergency-preparedness

ICF Construction Resources -
https://www.icfmag.com/

ICF and Fire Resources -
Recovering From the California Wildfires: How ICF is Playing a Role - great article from Fall 2019 on how ICF is being used to rebuild California communities hit by disastrous wildfires.

PS - Our Team, especially John Slocum, loves to help our customers Build, Sell or Buy their ICF home or property in Washington State, including the Vancouver and Clark County.

PPS - Home Shopping or, looking to right-size to another Home or Condo? We wouldn't have a real estate market if there weren't home buyers, and we love to help Home Buyers! As a part of our service we make it ease to Search all the available Real Estate for sale in Vancouver Washington or, separately Search all the available Condos for sale in Vancouver WA. We've put much custom work in to make it Easy for You to search by Neighborhood or by Category, with Homes and real estate listings from the entire RMLS. Sign-up is Not Required but recommended as you can Save your own custom search!

This report is prepared by John Slocum Vancouver WA ICF Home Sales Broker, and the information contained herein is deemed reliable but not guaranteed.