To the editor: Whereas there’s a must improve the constructing codes to extra fire-resistant practices, the type of tilt-up concrete buildings suggested by one letter writer shouldn’t be essentially the reply. These buildings are extra inflexible and would possibly endure extra from earthquakes.
After the Northridge earthquake in 1994, the Seismic Addendum was added to the American Welding Society’s Structural Welding Code to deal with the rigidity of steel-frame buildings that fractured within the quake. Wooden-frame buildings can transfer to a level for survivability.
There are practices accessible to cut back the possibilities of embers coming into constructions and inflicting ignition. These can be suggested as a technique to cut back a fireplace’s severity.
Alan Johnson, Seal Seashore
The author is a retired licensed welding inspector and a former member of the American Welding Society’s committee on structural welding.
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To the editor: It’s not a matter of “if,” however reasonably of “when” — and it’s totally predictable.
For those who reside in a fire-prone space, you may take all the fireplace precautions accessible — brush clearance 100 ft from a construction, irrigation and planting fire-retarding vegetation, for instance. However “when” remains to be doable at any time.
Why an insurance coverage firm would ever promote insurance policies for these areas is complicated. Why town or county of Los Angeles or every other comparable areas enable houses to be in-built these areas is outrageous.
Wooden burns and metal melts, and for those who’re fortunate sufficient to have a concrete residence with a tile roof, even that kind of construction will final solely so lengthy in an inferno.
Dave Simon, North Hollywood
The author is a panorama architect.
