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Insurance-backed research group urges home- and neighborhood-level steps to reduce wildfire ignitions
Summary
The Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS) presented its Wildfire Prepared standards and neighborhood methodology, recommending ember-resistant retrofits, defensible-space policing (especially the 0–5-foot zone), and community-level action to prevent conflagrations and increase survivability and insurability of homes.
Michael Newman, general counsel for the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS), told the board Sept. 30 that science-based building and landscape changes at the parcel and neighborhood level can reduce home ignitions and the risk of conflagration when wildfires enter communities.
IBHS researchers use full-scale testing to replicate ember storms and wildfire exposure and to identify practical mitigations. Newman described two IBHS products: Wildfire Prepared Home, a voluntary parcel-level designation that focuses on ember-resistance and core mitigations (roof, vents, defensible 0–5-foot zone);…
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