Code-Plus Recommendations for WU Communities

Blueprint for Safety’s Code-Plus recommendations for the wildfire peril may more appropriately be described as “Community-Plus” mitigation techniques. Once the recommended WU fire protection standards/code aspects of wildfire mitigation and fire protection are implemented, an extended level for wildfire mitigation becomes the organized and active evolution from mitigating individual homes to creating and maintaining compatible WU communities.

A compatible wildland community is achieved when a broad base of stakeholders unite at the local level to develop and implement a grass roots WU fire mitigation program. A “scattering” of wildfire resistant homes then becomes a “majority” of mitigated homes and ultimately a WU fire resistant “community.”

Programs like Firewise, Fire Safe, and others are facilitating establishment of fire resistant by providing leadership and support to community residents and stakeholders in protecting their homes, communities and environments from wildfire losses. The transition from implementation of the physical science of reducing wildfire exposure to the social science of community participation in planning, constructing and retrofitting fire-resistant homes, is becoming an effective methodology in eliminating wildfire losses in the country’s communities and wildlands.

Blueprint for Safety recommends that local stakeholders work together to make informed decisions in reducing the ignitibility of communities based on sound building and landscaping choices using the following references and information.

National Standards, Codes and Tests for WU Fire Application

Standard testing methods of roof coverings to resistance of burning firebrands can be found in:

UL 790, Tests for Fire Resistant Roof Covering Materials

ASTM E-108, Standard Test Methods for Fire Tests of Roof Coverings

These tests rate roof assemblies’ resistance to burning brands as Class A, B or C (Class A being most resistant, Class C being less resistant; roof materials that failed this testing are not rated). Roof coverings that receive a rating (Class A, B or C) have been found to be ignition resistant to firebrands in WU fire situations.

Note: It is essential that roofs also be assessed for openings that will allow firebrands from wildfires to enter buildings. It is not unusual to find Class A rated roofs, especially Spanish tile roofs containing openings in the eaves, which permit the entry of firebrands into attic spaces.

Community WU Fire Protection Standards and Codes

NFPA 1141, Standard for Fire Protection Infrastructure for Land Development, 2008 Edition (2007 publish date)

NFPA 1144, Standard for Reducing Structure Ignition Hazards from Wildland Fire, 2008 Edition (2007 publish date)

ICC, International Wildland-Urban Interface Code (2006 edition)

NFPA 256, Standard Methods of Fire Tests of Roof Coverings, 2003 Edition