How Fire Retardant Is Your Sales House?

Pics of that three-storey structure above (& at foot) flooded feeds over the weekend.

This "home seemed to emerge as the improbable lone survivor along the ravaged coastline".

Remarkable. Although not quite as it seems. As different angles of the same beachfront shows.

But still, given the swathes of utterly destroyed housing across Los Angeles, a noteworthy blessing.

Drone footage has revealed the extensive destruction caused by a massive fire that erupted in the Palisades area of Los Angeles.

Thousands of homes were reduced to ashes.

It looks like war zone. pic.twitter.com/VbmMkayQlm

— Current Report (@Currentreport1) January 9, 2025

The overhead shots of devastated residential zones truly shocking. So how did such 'lucky escape' occur?

It seems we ought consider two pincers.

First, the building itself.

I've read and heard several people involved in such defence describe the ideal.

Like Harry Statter of Frontline Wildfire Defense or Lindon Pronto, Senior Fire Management Expert at European Forest Institute.

Those in the know all speak of 'preparation and mitigation'.

Houses that remain standing often have various proactive measures in common.

As in the example here, a fire-proof roof and non-wood outer walls ('stucco' in LA terms, and there's building materials that sequester carbon that are fire resistant readily available too). Double-glazed outer windows. Screens over vents so embers cannot get in.

There's also the environment of the immediate surrounds. Too many in fire-prone areas put in flammable decking. As well as wooden fencing. With flora easily set alight like juniper bushes and eucalyptus trees abundant.

Add to these half-dozen, there's the other pincer. The societal environment.

Gross political dereliction presaged this disaster. $150m slashed from the wildfire prevention budget alone should have raised the alarm. Especially when other budgets did not receive such draconian cuts. Then there's the $17m hacked out the city's fire service funds (though still enough for the Chief to be absent on a jolly in Ghana). So many much needed experienced firefighters now impossible to redeploy in time of urgency. And what about the lack of the water. From refusal to pipe it in from where it's more plentiful upstate, through the incredibly un-tapped neighbouring Pacific Ocean to mystifying drainage of key local reservoir and storage tanks.

For any or all of these misplaced imbalances there's no doubt potential mirrors in our selling arena.

Here's one pearl from a luminary mentioned earlier;

"While wildfire outcomes can sometimes appear random, they are often the result of specific factors, including the structure itself, its surroundings, and active defense strategies.”

It doesn't take a Sales yoda to see our crossover;

"While wildfire ʙᴀᴅ ᴀᴄᴄᴏᴜɴᴛ outcomes can sometimes appear random, they are often the result of specific factors, including the ᴅᴇᴀʟ structure itself, its surroundings, and active defense strategies.”

You can do deeper with that, too.

A further pair of measures strike a Sales chord too.

The surviving house owner also happened to have gone for some level of 'earthquake resistance' too. Suggesting a strong mitigating mindset.

You read that local regs meant insurance companies were forced to withdraw fire cover. Insurance, I've heard it said by insiders, is neither a cost nor investment, but the transfer of risk. Fair play then to the homeowners who took matters into their own hands. Just like we must with our precious deal properties.

Then take too this knowledge. From the furnace-face. 'Focus on putting out the embers, as once a property is ablaze no amount of water pumped onto it is likely to save it'.

It seems the key to stopping the deadly conflagration spreading is to heavily douse where is next to what the flames currently engulf.

Shockingly, on the strong Santa Ana 'devil winds' around there at the time, some embers were carried literally miles. Landing where they merrily took hold and began a whole new annihilation. There's also a metaphor in there for our target market place.

There's certainly a vital exercise anyone with an oversight interest in a sales territory from this.

You'll likely know the equivalents to each of the above in your world.

Spot them. Work out what'll deflect them. Enact those measures.

Save yourself from the coming fire. Which is coming...

tycoon reveals how 'miracle' Malibu house survived wildfires when everyone else's burnedhttps://t.co/FoJf58Q7MI pic.twitter.com/B7TOg22M5y

— Dave C (@DaveC5599) January 11, 2025