KB Home has announced its groundbreaking initiative to establish the first “wildfire-resilient” community, located in Escondido, just outside San Diego. The future buildout is set to feature at least 64 single-family residences that meet high standards for wildfire resilience. The Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS) created these standards to protect houses from these flames, flying embers and radiant heat. Recognizing these three ignition sources as a high threat during wildfires.
For fire purposes, the homes are roughly 10 feet apart on purpose to ensure there’s room for the eventual spread of a fire. The development includes a 5-30 foot defensible space, with low-combustible vegetation at least five feet from each house. This trailblazing initiative is a model of what more powerful, proven, wildfire-resilient homes look like. It’s a laboratory for experimentation and implementation of what to do going forward in fire-prone regions.
“This subdivision built by KB Home, it’s really the test bed to show this and demonstrate it,” – Roy Wright, CEO of IBHS
The exteriors of these modular homes boast a six-inch vertical clearance with concrete foundation, stucco and stone making up the materials. These homes start at $1 million and go up into the low millions. This pricing reflects not only the safety features but the design changes made during development, as explained by KB Home executives.
“We had to change the architecture on the fly to a more stucco-oriented architecture with fire-resistant shutters, or fire-free shutters and doors and tempered windows. We were able to do that really quickly with the city, because they wanted to work with us. They really understood that this was important for their city,” – Ruffner
The IBHS is a nonprofit, scientific research organization that collaborates with property insurers. These authors are responsible for developing the wildfire resilience standards now taking root in this community. Having these standards in place would go a long way toward ensuring that homes are insurable as well as survivable come wildfire season. The recent Palisades Fire in January, which devastated thousands of homes in the Los Angeles area, highlighted the importance of such measures. As we learned from the last disaster, plenty of homes that were built to fire-resistant standards came out unscathed.
“Nothing is ever fireproof. We’re always just seeking to try to narrow those paths of destruction,” – Wright
This is the community’s vigorous effort to respond to the increasing menace of wildfires. It advocates for and helps develop resilient, affordable housing options for all. For example, KB Home begins with a strong commitment to balance cost with safety. Then they work to make these homes affordable for first-time homebuyers and move-up buyers.
“We’re trying to get the cost to a reasonable place, because we really specialize in first-time buyers and first-time move-up buyers. So we want to make sure we can get this in a good place where it’s affordable to do it and it’s also got a good payback to the customer in a form of safety,” – Ruffner