The California wildfires are still ravaging the Los Angeles area a week after they started. The accounts of residents who live in this area and have lost everything are heartbreaking.
Against this catastrophic backdrop, a few lucky homes were spared; for one reason or another, the homes of these residents are miraculously still intact.
But how can this be? Of course, there’s advice on how to fireproof your home, with experts recommending everything from landscaping tips to the benefits of sprinklers.
However, some well-known architects recommend investing in what is called a “passive house”. Although still a fairly new trend in the market, these types of homes are designed to be extremely environmentally friendly and benefit from protection against fire damage.
“Passive House” survives California fire
The latest statistics from California project that over 40,000 acres have burned since January. 14. The initial fire in the Pacific Palisades remains at 17% containment, with nearly 24,000 acres destroyed.
A week after the fires started, winds were forecast to return with a force that “could cause extreme fire behavior or turn any new spark into a raging inferno,” according to CNN.
Greg Chasen’s Pacific Palisades home, which he built in 2024, is still standing while neighboring homes burned down. The house on Iliff Street is “the only one” that “remains intact,” Mansion Global reported.
“If it weren’t for some fire-resistant design strategies, the house would have been destroyed,” Bloomberg reported.
Chasen, an architect who designed the house, said the home he built “for a dear friend” boasts several fireproof features. Some of them follow the principles of passive house design.
How to build a passive house
To officially qualify as a passive house, a house must meet certain criteria set by the International Passive House Association. The dwelling should consume 86% less energy for heating and 46% less for cooling compared to other code-compliant buildings in the same climate.
To reduce or eliminate the need for heating in the winter and air conditioning in the summer, a passive house is built hermetically, using strong exterior insulation, triple-glazed windows, and construction methods that ensure heat is not transferred to the interior. exterior of the building. No outside air enters and no internal air escapes.
This airtight construction is one of the reasons the house can withstand fire.
As Bloomberg reported, the home has no eaves, hoods or attic vents “to allow sparks to enter the roof, which is metal with a fire-resistant inner lining.”
In addition, Chasen’s firefighting options include “a protected area free of vegetation, surrounded by cast-in-place concrete garden walls.”
What are the principles of passive house?
While nothing is completely fireproof, there are some ways to protect a home.
For example, following the five passive house principles—required for a certification—can help. According to the Passive House Accelerator, these are the principles:
- Super insulated envelopes
- Hermetic construction
- High performance polishing
- Details without thermal bridging
- Heat recovery ventilation
Zachary Semke, principal at the Passive House Accelerator, tells Realtor.com® that many core principles of passive house design help make buildings resilient to fire and smoke.
“Hermetic construction helps stop soot from absorbing into building envelopes,” says Semke. “Simpler shapes (fewer zigzags and hollows, flaps, etc.) mean fewer nooks and crannies to catch embers, plus less overall surface area exposed to fire hazard.”
Stay up-to-date with NYP’s coverage of the devastating wildfires in the LA area
Ignacio Rodriguez, CEO of IR Architects, designed nine homes currently on the Palisades-Malibu fire road, eight of which were still standing at press time. He says some passive strategies are now part of California’s Title 24 energy code, and his firm incorporates these practices into its residential designs.
Rodriguez, who was forced to evacuate his home during the Hurst Fire, explains that tighter envelopes are the most important passive fire-resistance practice.
“The primary goal is energy efficiency to prevent the loss of heating and cooling from the home, but tight sealing also increases resilience to fire,” he says.
In addition, he says that windows are the “keys to glowing success.” While a structure can withstand flames, heat and wind can blow out windows.
“We’ve found that aluminum-framed windows are more resilient than vinyl frames,” he adds.
In addition, Rodriguez notes that his firm encourages clients to install one-hour fire membranes behind structural wood and treat exterior wood cladding with a fire-resistant coating.
Finally, as Semke notes, these structures also have energy recovery ventilation (HRV and ERV) systems, which can be equipped with filters to remove smoke particles and odors. This protects the health and well-being of occupants and building interiors from smoke damage.
The passive cost of the house
States like New York, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania have been early adopters of passive houses. As of 2023, “16,000 Passive House multifamily housing units (apartments or townhomes) were built or are in the process of being built nationwide,” according to the Passive House Network.
Currently, there are 12 million square feet of Passive House-certified buildings in the U.S., according to Semke. They are a combination of single-family and multi-family buildings. These projects are certified by one of two independent certification bodies: Phius (based in Chicago) and the Passive House Institute (based in Darmstadt, Germany).
However, one of the most important drawbacks of these structures is their initial cost.
According to Semke, these single-family homes are typically 5% to 10% more expensive when designed with cost optimization in mind. However, the upfront investment brings ongoing savings on utility bills.
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