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<\/p>\nViral Red-roofed House survived Maui wildfires : A red-roofed house is viral because of it’s survival of Maui wildfires. The owner has given opinion about how this happened. She talked about it’s survival in a neighborhood otherwise reduced to ash.<\/p>\n
Stunning aerial images of the unscathed property went viral last week \u2014 while also sparking bonkers conspiracies that the local devastation was a targeted laser attack from space.<\/p>\n
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However, owner Dora Atwater Millikin put it down to a handful of routine changes during a recent renovation \u2014 none of which were aimed at surviving such a disaster.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a 100% wood house so it\u2019s not like we fireproofed it or anything,\u201d the landscape painter told the Los Angeles Times.<\/p>\n
Atwater Millikin said that she and her husband, Dudley, a retired portfolio manager, did not have wildfires in mind when they renovated the 100-year-old former bookkeeper\u2019s house that they\u2019ve owned for three years.<\/p>\n
One decision that may have unknowingly helped it survive the wildfire \u2014 the deadliest in the US in more than a century \u2014 was replacing the asphalt roof with one made out of heavy-gauge metal, she told the LA paper.<\/p>\n
She was told that during the fire, \u201cthere were pieces of wood \u2014 6, 12 inches long \u2014 that were on fire and just almost floating through the air with the wind and everything,\u201d she told the LA Times.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey would hit people\u2019s roofs, and if it was an asphalt roof, it would catch on fire. And otherwise, they would fall off the roof and then ignite the foliage around the house.\u201d<\/p>\n
There, too, they also unknowingly improved the property\u2019s odds of survival, having lined the ground with stones up to the drip line of the roof, and cut down foliage that was up against the outside walls.<\/p>\n
While it was implemented to keep out termites, not protect against fires, it almost perfectly fit guidance given by experts, according to Susie Kocher, a forestry adviser for the University of California Cooperative Extension who co-authored a guide on how to harden homes against wildfires.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf shrubs and bushes, especially flammable ones, are right up next to the house and embers catch them on fire, the heat can burst the window and it goes right into the home from there,\u201d Kocher told the LA Times.<\/p>\n
The red-roofed house may also have benefited from not being too close to neighboring properties \u2014 often the main fuel for fires \u2014 instead being bordered on three sides by the ocean, a road and an empty lot.<\/p>\n
While the house had sprinklers, so did most of the neighbors\u2019 properties, and the system wasn\u2019t working when needed because the power was out, Atwater Millikin said. However, any combustibles were largely removed from the under-deck area, which also faced the ocean.<\/p>\n
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Kocher said the house had many of the qualities that would help it survive such disasters.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople generally think that it\u2019s a big wall of flames that is catching houses on fire, but often the mechanism is embers,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo embers are coming from the flaming front, which could be some distance away.\u201d<\/p>\n
That mistaken belief also creates wild unfounded rumors about why some areas remain undamaged while all around is razed, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think conspiracy theories can flourish when we don\u2019t understand how things happen,\u201d Kocher said.<\/p>\n
Atwater Millikin and her husband plan to return to Maui soon and open their place to neighbors who were left homeless.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe lost neighbors in this, and neighbors lost everything,\u201d Atwater Millikin told the California paper.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo many people have lost everything, and we need to look out for each other and rebuild. Everybody needs to help rebuild.\u201d <\/p>\n
Viral Red-roofed House survived Maui wildfires<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Viral Red-roofed House survived Maui wildfires : A red-roofed house is viral because of it’s survival of Maui wildfires. The owner has given opinion about how this happened. She talked about it’s survival in a neighborhood otherwise reduced to ash. Stunning aerial images of the unscathed property went viral last week \u2014 while also sparking […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":54121,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4209],"tags":[4584,4583,4585,4581,4582],"class_list":["post-54118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-dora-atwater-millikin","tag-red-roofed-house","tag-united-states","tag-viral-red-roofed-house-survived-maui-wildfires","tag-wildfires"],"yoast_head":"\n