Will Irvine’s Meticulous Planning Become a Model for Building Fire Resistant Communities in California?

 
Four years before the Palisades and Eaton fires swept through Los Angeles, Irvine faced the Silverado fire that threatened homes in the northern Irvine community of Orchard Hills.

Residents were evacuated and the fire came dangerously close. However, no one in Irvine lost their home. In fact, the fire didn’t damage a single residence in Orchard Hills.

So, why was Orchard Hills spared? According to the Times article, it wasn’t luck — it was the result of deliberate design, stringent regulations, and proactive planning.

Decades ago, now-Mayor Larry Agran and other City leaders diligently adhered to a requirement that all residential development plans be reviewed by the fire department before the developer could receive a building permit. That decision has allowed our local fire department to make sure homes in Irvine are being built to resist wildfires.

The fire-safe development of Orchard Hills was built by the Irvine Company, with full cooperation from the fire department and a third-party “fire behavior analyst” who examined wind patterns, topography and fire history. According to the Times, that research led to Orchard Hills being “designed with numerous levels of defense for an oncoming fire: in the open land surrounding the neighborhood, in the yards and in the homes themselves. It starts with the fuel modification zone — open space around the community that can be modified to reduce fire risk by replacing combustible vegetation with fire-resistant shrubs.”

Above Orchard Hills is an 800-acre avocado orchard that has a built-in irrigation system, which provides a natural fire break. The fire department worked with farmers to add more space between the avocado trees, and cleared the brush and sage to limit flammable objects in the 170-foot fuel modification zone. As an added layer of protection, the Irvine Company built a 6-foot wall around the north side of Orchard Hills — where a Santa Ana wind-driven fire would most likely hit first — to protect the properties most at risk from radiant heat and to prevent low-flying embers from escaping.

The Irvine Company wrapped the homes with stucco or fiber cement, which are both noncombustible materials. Mesh filters were added to the roof vents to block embers, and the roof tiles were made of concrete or clay, which are also noncombustible.

An added bonus was Irvine’s wide roads and well-planned infrastructure that facilitated the safe evacuation of 90,000 residents — one-third of the entire City of Irvine — in advance of the oncoming Silverado Fire.

Irvine’s approach — integrating wildfire risk mitigation into all development projects — is something cities across California could adopt to protect lives and property.