I’m certain the building codes in southern California will be updated to force sprinkler systems on residences.
It’s not an easy task for architects and builders. The engineering is daunting. The liability is a Pandora’s Box in an insurance market already burdened with litigation and institutionalized avoidance. Delivering adequate water during a firestorm is nearly an impossible challenge for public agencies.
Australia’s Calair Pipe Systems makes a variety of nozzles for outside or external sprinklers to protect homes and buildings from wildfire. Their Fire-Pro System includes heat engineered polymer pipe, nozzles and activation sensors.
The intense heat of a storm of fire may overwhelm any system, but risk is most often from embers flying through miles of neighborhoods not merely proximity vegetation. An automatic sprinkler system might be the breakthrough homeowners are looking for, but there’s much work ahead.
Wet helps, but winds of fire at 50 or 70 miles per hour can boil water away in moments.
Extensive Flash slide shows are here at LA’s CBS TV and another at LATimes.
