As of this writing as many as 15,000 structures have been lost (and who knows how many damaged). Then there is infrastructure, the heat from this fire could damage things like gas lines, not to mention power lines and communications/fiber,infrastructure will be damaged by this. As others have pointed out, there will be questions about housing, the market there was already tight. With rebuilding after something like this, there also will be the problem of shoddy , fly by night contractors and by price gouging both for construction and materials that will likely overwhelm the ability to regulate it.
There will be other questions. Given the area and the potential for wildfires, are building codes taking into consideration making structures as fire proof as possible? Otherwise, they will be rebuilding and repeating the same mistakes. Will they require things like metal roofs or houses constructed of masonary? Especially given how dense housing is, not changing codes to try and make buildings more fire resistant is asking for trouble IMO, this is a time when they can act. There is a reason why in city areas like NYC building codes came about that banned wood frame construction. The asphault or fiberglass shingles on roofs commonly used are an invitation to a fire.
One geeky note, I have seen where they now are building 3d printed houses out of concrete, I wonder if that will be used in the rebuild to try and speed up the process. The houses are inherently fire resistant, they use less labor, the prime material is concrete, and from what i have seen they are built out significantly faster than a stick built house our of wood or masonary.
The firm I work for held a symposium in Dec 2023 in Austin, and the CEO (Jason Ballard) of that firm (ICON) was a guest speaker. I asked about getting the technology to Lahaina, but that was a nearly impossible task. It will be interesting to see if they can get it to California (they were actively working on a housing development for the displaced outside of Austin - Community First Village) -
One oddity I saw was David Muir inside a vehicle filming the devastation on one side of the street as they moved and there was like an 8 foot tall hedge, looking completely untouched. So weird.
Just talked with D in central L.A. They are doing fine. They had a small room air purifier that helped a lot. They had at one time two other couples from very near evacuation areas stay with them… and their babies… and a couple of pets. They reported no problem going to the grocery store and it had food. They said the restaurants are open. They felt that covid had prepared them for being flexible and comfortable in the situation. One of these couples in L.A. they had spent together during covid in the northeast!
AP News has this wildfire tracker. I had no idea there were so many fires happening right now. Anyway, you can zoom in to see key facts about a given fire…how many acres burned, percent contained, personnel assigned to fight it, etc.
One of the things my wife pointed out was could a concrete structure like that meet the needs of handling earthquakes. From what I recall of the way they are made, it is reinforced concrete with rebar, which should be able to handle earthquakes but I am not an engineer or anything. Having a construction background though,the challenge of rebuilding is immense, to get the materials required alone. I suspect things like building materials, plumbing supplies, electrical supplies are going to be in short supply and like in Covid the price is going to soar. Immense demands for labor in rebuilding as well, it is why I thought of 3d printing, might help alleviate that need a bit. The problem is there simply might not be the capacity to do that, I suspect the 3d printing of houses is still too new to be applied on that scale. I really hope that LA looks at their building codes and puts fire resistant building into the code, like even if the building is wood framed require things like metal roofs and the exterior clad in fireproof materials. It is funny, they used to make asbestos roofing and exterior siding that might help make a house fire resistant (which obviously cannot and should not ever be used again), hopefully with the rebuild the houses will be made more resilient to fire. The Getty Museum survived because the building is fire resistant, it is masonary construction and the roof is covered in gravel.
Homes within a certain distance of the ocean need permission from the California Coastal Commission in order to do new construction. Those permits can take years! I wonder if those requirements will be relaxed or permits speeded up in light of the disaster.
I would assume with my knowledge of how zoning and building codes work that if it was an existing structure, that they would be grandfathered in, because it wouldn’t be considered new construction.
That said, there could be a situation where they require in rebuilding that the structures meet model fire codes (assuming they exist) for buildings in fire prone areas (I am pretty sure these exist, even if LA hadn’t adopted them, they tend to have model codes for most things). So they might require that all new buildings be made of masonary or other fire resistant materials (or clad in it), roofs would need to be metal or other fire resistant materials and so forth (and I am not an expert or in the industry, just my speculation). Rebuilding houses the way they were with wood construction and asphault shingles or tar roofs on flat roofs would creare a situation where this could happen again.
I do wonder about the oceanfront properties in Malibu, though. I’m not sure that any new construction in CA is allowed that close to the coastline.
It’s an issue that’s coming up in Lahaina as many of the iconic businesses, like Kimo’s, were built on decks over the water on Front St. That type of construction is no longer allowed but of course rebuilding Front St. without those overwater decks will completely change its character.
Not if the CZU fire (along highway one between Santa Cruz and San Mateo) process is any indication. Less than 10% of people have been able to rebuild. Between the CCC and local entities it’s proven close to impossible to meet the rebuilding requirements.
Someone upthread (apologies that I can’t recall who and for being too lazy to scroll up) indicated there was a permit waiver when there was total destruction.
No idea about the rules in CA. In Florida, there are damage assessment percentages relative to home value that trigger a tear down and complete rebuild even if there is not total destruction. Many simply cannot afford what it costs to rebuild up to new code standards.
It seems like many of the homes in that area were 40+ years old. Significant changes happen in terms of code requirements over time. Even if rebuilding is allowed it will be costly.
Someone else mentioned celebs getting passes on things. I honestly can’t see that happening. If it does, it’ll be sniffed out and reported, I think.
As one example of the code changes, California introduced a requirement for sprinklers in new construction starting about 15 years ago (not that it would be remotely useful against such a large wildfire, it’s to mitigate things like a kitchen fire).
It is a huge expense and can be very problematic beyond the sheer cost, because in some cases you may need to upgrade the water lines serving the property to ensure they are large enough to carry the necessary water flow. That can take months or years to implement at significant additional expense depending on how long those lines are. I have no idea what will happen in neighborhoods where hundreds or thousands of homes will need to be rebuilt and whether the entire water system will need to be reconfigured.
If the Palisades Fire jumps the 405, UCLA Hospital will evacuate its patients.
SIL reports nearly all of his former colleagues from Cal Tech/AWS/JPL who live in Altadena have lost their homes in the Eaton Fire. Six that he knows of.
The National Guard has been activated by Governor Newsome and is patrolling the evacuated areas in an effort to prevent looting.
In Altadena last night, a car registered to an address in San Diego was left on a partially burned street and set deliberately ablaze. Two homeowners saw the fire, doused the car with water then reported it to fire fighters working nearby. Upon completely putting out the fire, fire fighters discover the trunk was completely filled with containers of gasoline. The registered owner of the car can’t be located and won’t respond to calls on their mobile. It’s unclear if the car was set ablaze as part of an insurance fraud scheme or a part of a larger arson-and-looting plan.
This is great news. And yes…I’m sure the lawsuits are already being drafted.
Assuming this ‘hold’ on environmental laws is allowed to go into place, I wonder if it will grant any relief for those folks I’ve been mentioning. The ones who lost homes in September 2020 and have been unable to rebuild.
I can’t handle things like this. While “the best” is coming out in support of those who need it, there are “the worst” that also show up. Looters in “firefighter” uniforms, stolen military Humvees, and more.
