As western state residents begin to clean up from the latest wave of wildfires, they're also looking ahead and thinking about preventative measures that can be taken to ensure this level of devastation doesn’t happen again.
Along with clearing brush and debris away from a home, installing a non-combustible metal roof system is one of the most proactive steps that can be taken to reduce the chance of a house being destroyed during a wildfire.
Most forest fires decimate residential communities through burning pine needles and other debris blown from roof to roof. More conventional residential roofs, such as asphalt, catch fire relatively easily and the home subsequently burns to the ground. With a metal roofing, however, those same homes could be saved.
Metal roofing, with its fire-retardant qualities, is becoming the new material of choice for residential roofing, particularly in the wildfire-prone Western states.
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| Metal roofing helped this home survive a wildfire in Cle Elum, Washington. Photo courtesy of the Associated Press.. |
“I’ve seen too many homes burned to the ground that could’ve been prevented,” said Jim McMullen, former California State Fire Marshall. “A metal roof is one of - if not the - best preventative steps a homeowner can take to prevent the spread of residential fires and save their own homes. These wildfires may not have been preventable; however, if there were more metal roofs on residences, they can be more easily contained.”
To see an recent example of a home with a metal roof that survived the recent Washington state wildfires, visit this NBC news site and view photos of the the surviving home with metal roofing.
To learn more about metal roofing and wildfire prevention visit the Fire Concerns category in the Metal Roofing Alliance's Ask The Experts forum.