[bdauvergne]

From the recent events in California I have seen many photos of burnt houses with unburnt trees around. I think those houses were especially flammable more than some vegetation around it seems. After the fire nothing remained but the chimneys. I have never seen any house burn like that in Europe.

I live along the Mediterranean sea in France, many wood fires every summer, with wind above 100km/h; never seen so many houses burn like in California even when most of our houses are concrete but with wooden framework.

I'm pretty sure that if houses were built like here (concrete / concrete blocks with terracota tiles on wooden framwork) at lot less would have burnt. Maybe those near the wooded slopes but not in the middle of a neighborhood block.

[0u89e]

I have looked on some videos of how those good looking US houses have plastic drainage, plastic material roof cladding and plastic panels inside and outside. And the first thing that I was thinking - those burn in an event of house fire. But I see more ond more building materials that were used in US now offered and being standard in building here in Europe, so most probably some of the newer houses in an event of fire will burn down in similar fashion. I'm just wondering if the commenter that mentioned "black swan event"(a very popular theme in Russia and unrelated to wildfires) actually understands that USA has plastic houses everywhere and nothing will change - new mansions will be rebuilt in burned areas with the same materials, but because they are going to offer them as fireproof branded, they will cost more. That's all - these areas won't be abandoned, because location, location and location is the only thing that matters in property business and in your property value.

[martijnvds]

The Grenfell tower fire comes to mind regarding flammable cladding. Not "new" but "renovated".

It killed more than 70 people.

[rs999gti]

> I'm just wondering if the commenter that mentioned "black swan event"(a very popular theme in Russia and unrelated to wildfires)

What does this mean, "popular theme in Russia"

[heavyset_go]

> From the recent events in California I have seen many photos of burnt houses with unburnt trees around.

I think some of that can be attributed to the fact that buildings are stationary structures that have ample square-footage for embers to land and cause fires, where as trees have less stationary surface area for embers to land, remain and build into fires.

[notfromhere]

also trees are wet inside, houses are not. fresh wood doesnt burn easily

[Aloisius]

> along the Mediterranean sea in France, with wind above 100km/h

And what's the humidity?

The Santa Ana winds that affect LA are extremely dry and gusty with < 10% relative humidity. It is hard to compare them to anything else.

[bdauvergne]

I really don't know, we never talk about humidity here, only about rain (it rains few days each year, but a lot).

Apparently it's more than 60% year long: https://weather-and-climate.com/average-monthly-Humidity-per...

I agree climate is a bit special in south California, but what is usually done here when a fire is near a house is for the owner to sprinkle it before the fire is coming; if you take time to sprinkle the roof (which is the only part containing wood here) there is less chance for an ignition.

[Arelius]

Yeah, but it's California, so I'm not sure concrete is great for the earthquakes.