Speaker 1: KFI AM six forty. You're listening to Dean Sharp The
Speaker 1: House Whisper on demand on the iHeart Radio app Welcome Home.
Speaker 1: I am Dean Sharp, the House Whisper. I design custom homes,
Speaker 1: I build custom homes, and on the weekends here I
Speaker 1: am your guide to better understand that place where you live.
Speaker 1: Today on the show, we are going to continue where
Speaker 1: we were going yesterday, and that is, of course, with
Speaker 1: the coverage of the fires that are still burning here
Speaker 1: in southern California and the greater Los Angeles area. Of course,
Speaker 1: news coverage will be coming as always from the twenty
Speaker 1: four hour KFI Newsroom. Where I'm going to focus my
Speaker 1: attention as I began to yesterday and today will continue
Speaker 1: to today, is on some subjects of Number one, fire
Speaker 1: hardening homes against these kinds of fires. Number two, answering
Speaker 1: any of your questions that you may have, because we'll
Speaker 1: be taking calls as always, and we'll also hopefully be
Speaker 1: able to take calls on a full array of subjects,
Speaker 1: anything that you actually want to talk about. More on
Speaker 1: that in just a bit. But most importantly, I want
Speaker 1: to talk about what happens next, because slowly but surely,
Speaker 1: these fires are coming under control. Okay, now, it's not fast,
Speaker 1: and that does in no way, shape or form means
Speaker 1: that we are out of trouble when it comes to
Speaker 1: these fires. The current status we will discuss briefly shortly,
Speaker 1: The Palisades Fire eleven percent contained. That's up a good
Speaker 1: three percent from yesterday in terms of containment. That's good news.
Speaker 1: Twenty four thousand acres burned, though, that is not good news.
Speaker 1: And fire is now twenty seven percent contained. That's a
Speaker 1: big jump from yesterday. That's good news as well. The
Speaker 1: Kenneth Fire that popped up in the West Hills area
Speaker 1: on Thursday one hundred percent contained as of this morning,
Speaker 1: currently reporting, the Lydia Fire one hundred percent contained. The
Speaker 1: Hurst Fire eighty nine percent contained in the north near
Speaker 1: San Fernando. So we're making ground. We're making ground, but
Speaker 1: nowhere near the finish line for any of these blazes,
Speaker 1: and new homes and new areas being threatened. Even now,
Speaker 1: now that the wind has started to rise back up again,
Speaker 1: worst wind day that we're anticipating for this week is
Speaker 1: going to be Tuesday. Are we going to see gusts
Speaker 1: in the sixty to eighty mile an hour category? It
Speaker 1: is not anticipated. It's anticipated that we're just going to
Speaker 1: see what we would call here in southern California normal
Speaker 1: Santa Anna wins. But believe me, those are enough, those
Speaker 1: are enough to become problematic. So that's where we are currently.
Speaker 1: Ellie County is reporting I believe I haven't updated this
Speaker 1: number yet. As of yesterday, Ellie County was reporting eleven
Speaker 1: fatalities in association with these fires, more than twelve thousand
Speaker 1: structures damaged or destroyed. And without question, these are now
Speaker 1: not just the most severe natural disaster in terms of
Speaker 1: wildfire to hit the Los Angeles area in its history,
Speaker 1: these are the costliest wildfire disasters in US history, totaling
Speaker 1: over right now an estimated fifty billion dollars in damages.
Speaker 1: So the big question is where do we go from here.
Speaker 1: I do not mean to make light of the ongoing
Speaker 1: battling efforts. That's why the KFI newsroom is going to
Speaker 1: be continuing to update us. But what I wanted to
Speaker 1: discuss with you this morning is for those of you
Speaker 1: who have not experienced this yet, how do you defend
Speaker 1: your house against it? And number two, for those of
Speaker 1: you who have experienced not just oh there was a fire,
Speaker 1: and our house burnt, an area of our house burnt. Now,
Speaker 1: what happens when an entire neighborhood, when an entire region
Speaker 1: is burnt to the ground? How do we restart from that?
Speaker 1: What are some of the factors that you could anticipate,
Speaker 1: and what are your next steps? We're going to try
Speaker 1: and cover all of that this morning. I am here
Speaker 1: with you as always to help in any way that
Speaker 1: I can. Of course, we're going to be taking calls.
Speaker 1: The phone lines are open now eight three three two
Speaker 1: ask Dean eight three three the numeral to ask Dean.
Speaker 1: We're up on social media. More on that later. Let
Speaker 1: me introduce our awesome team. Elmer is on the board.
Speaker 1: Good morning, Elmer, Good morning Dean, Good morning everyone. Producer Richie,
Speaker 1: I believe is standing near a microphone this time? Is
Speaker 1: it true? So true? Good morning guys, Oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: what a rare occurrence. You've heard it? Yes, I rolled
Speaker 1: out of bed this time and came to the studio.
Speaker 1: Hey brother, good to hear your voice this morning. Glad
Speaker 1: to be here with her. Thanks. Eileen Gonzalez at the KFI
Speaker 1: twenty four hour news desk, how you doing, Eileen? Good morning,
Speaker 1: I'm doing great. How are you guys. We're okay, We're okay.
Speaker 1: You know, we're just pushing through. I'm not really looking
Speaker 1: forward to all the stuff that I have to talk
Speaker 1: about in the next three hours, but it's important stuff.
Speaker 1: Sopping people out. You're doing a great service. We're just
Speaker 1: going to do what we need to do. Of course,
Speaker 1: sitting across the table from me, my better half, my
Speaker 1: design partner, my best friend in the world, Tina is here,
Speaker 1: my kid, clearing her throat. I was actually waiting for
Speaker 1: that before I said anything. Welcome home, Good morning, How
Speaker 1: are you doing.
Speaker 2: It's been it's been a week.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, it has been.
Speaker 2: I I'm really glad we're doing this and hope that
Speaker 2: it helps.
Speaker 1: We will do our best, and we will begin with
Speaker 1: this very very special subject matter here on Home with
Speaker 1: Dean Sharp the House Whisper.
Speaker 2: Right after you're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on
Speaker 2: demand from KFI Am six forty.
Speaker 1: I'm here to help you just hang on to your
Speaker 1: home so that you can take it to the next
Speaker 1: level later on. Because of all of the fires that
Speaker 1: we're talking about here in southern California, our special content
Speaker 1: for this weekend not originally what we planned, of course,
Speaker 1: but that's the way a natural disaster works, right changes
Speaker 1: your plans. Our special content for this weekend solely talking
Speaker 1: about your home and fires and or natural disasters. And
Speaker 1: I know we have a lot of listeners nationwide who
Speaker 1: listen to the podcast or listen to the live broadcast
Speaker 1: of the show right here and right now. For you,
Speaker 1: fire talk is always relevant no matter where you live
Speaker 1: on planet Earth. But the discussion specifically of the Los
Speaker 1: Angeles wildfires right now you may not feel is entirely
Speaker 1: relevant to you. But because of the scope of these fires,
Speaker 1: they are a natural disaster that has affected entire region.
Speaker 1: And so our response to that the question answering the
Speaker 1: question how do you rebuild? What does that process look
Speaker 1: like after an entire region has been devastated by a
Speaker 1: natural disaster? Hopefully, and I think you will be able
Speaker 1: to glean a lot of information, a lot of truth
Speaker 1: from our conversation, regardless of whether it's fire, flood, earthquake, hurricane, tornado,
Speaker 1: or what have you that affects the region where you live.
Speaker 1: No place on planet Earth is immune to natural disasters,
Speaker 1: and so knowing what to do and basically what happens
Speaker 1: after the fact. We have a lot of precedent for it.
Speaker 1: It is not an unknown, although there are a lot
Speaker 1: of specific unknowns with every disaster in every situation. So
Speaker 1: we'll also be going to the phones. Let me give
Speaker 1: you the number eight three three two. Ask Dean A
Speaker 1: three to three the numeral two. Ask Dean eight three
Speaker 1: three two. Ask Dean anything that's on your mind that's
Speaker 1: got you scratching your head about your home today. As always,
Speaker 1: I will be prioritizing fire related calls, though, just so
Speaker 1: you know, and you know, and if we don't have
Speaker 1: any of those, I'm still going to the phones. Would
Speaker 1: be nice to be able to just kind of take
Speaker 1: a breather and take a break from all the fire
Speaker 1: talk as well. So I am wide open to whatever
Speaker 1: you may want to be discussing about your home today,
Speaker 1: as always, eight three three two Ask Dean. Ritchie is
Speaker 1: standing by screening calls right now. Phone lines are open
Speaker 1: and there's a clear path for you. Just to give
Speaker 1: him a call. He'll tell you everything you need to know.
Speaker 1: Popy into the queue, and then we'll put our heads
Speaker 1: together and we'll figure out what's going on with your place,
Speaker 1: all right, let's get to it. A quick review of
Speaker 1: what we covered yesterday. I don't want to recover it.
Speaker 1: I just want to make you aware, especially if you
Speaker 1: are a podcast listener, that there is a previous episode
Speaker 1: Part one of this coverage was yesterday's or the previous
Speaker 1: episode to this episode. I've not I've got too much
Speaker 1: stuff to cover with you to do a full review
Speaker 1: of that, but I am going to repeat this because
Speaker 1: this is worth saying every single day. I want to
Speaker 1: begin today's program with appreciation for all the brave and
Speaker 1: dedicated men and women who have been tirelessly fighting these fires.
Speaker 1: I want to show appreciation for the cooperating out of
Speaker 1: area fire services who've rushed in to assist. Tina and
Speaker 1: I were on PCH at the Zuoma Beach Command Center
Speaker 1: on Thursday to see firefighting teams and equipment from cities
Speaker 1: and counties from all over California, as well as states Arizona, Oregon, Washington, Idaho.
Speaker 1: If there is a silver lining I said this yesterday
Speaker 1: to a natural disaster, it is that, in my opinion,
Speaker 1: for a time at least, the immediacy of the threat
Speaker 1: and the need sets aside all the other bs that
Speaker 1: we normally get caught up in and can bring out
Speaker 1: the very best in human beings. And of course, for
Speaker 1: those who have comfortable, safe vantage points. These events are
Speaker 1: already being criticized and politicized, But for the countless people
Speaker 1: who are in it on the front lines, the volunteers
Speaker 1: with food and water and blankets, the neighbors offering shelter
Speaker 1: and open arms and kind words. I mean, we do
Speaker 1: not live anywhere well, I shouldn't say anywhere near. We
Speaker 1: do not live in threat of these particular fires. When
Speaker 1: the Wolsey Fire happened in twenty eighteen, just a mere
Speaker 1: six years ago, we were just a few hundred feet
Speaker 1: away from evacuating. But these fires have not threatened our
Speaker 1: location this year. And yet this week, nothing but calls
Speaker 1: coming in from friends, from loved ones saying, hey, are
Speaker 1: you okay? I've heard, are you guys safe? Do you
Speaker 1: need anything? If you guys need a break from the
Speaker 1: smoke or this, come on over that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1: That's what I'm talking about that happens a minute for
Speaker 1: minute during these kinds of situations. And I'm happy to
Speaker 1: say I've made some of those calls to to friends
Speaker 1: who are a lot closer to the fire. So the food,
Speaker 1: the water, the blankets, the neighbors offering shelter, the open arms,
Speaker 1: the kind words. It is heartening to see the best
Speaker 1: of what it means to be human during a natural disaster.
Speaker 1: That does not make it a happy event. It simply
Speaker 1: is encouraging, that's all. Okay, all right, let's start with
Speaker 1: topically with hardening your home, and then I want to
Speaker 1: move into Okay, your home is burnt down. Now what
Speaker 1: do you do. We've done fire hardening show. I do
Speaker 1: a fire hardening show at least once a year, okay,
Speaker 1: before fire season begins. So for those of you who
Speaker 1: are longtime listeners of the program, this is not going
Speaker 1: to be any new information for you. But we always
Speaker 1: have new people listening, and so I want to give
Speaker 1: you this information. Start with the most repeated thing on
Speaker 1: this program in terms of fire ardening of your home
Speaker 1: and arguably the most important thing in my opinion, ember
Speaker 1: proofing your attic events. Okay, again, I will tell you this.
Speaker 1: Even though the fire line, this is a relatively rare
Speaker 1: occurrence that a fire line because of the perfect storm
Speaker 1: of high gale winds and the location of let's say
Speaker 1: the Palisades, and both the Palisades and the Eaten Fire
Speaker 1: especially this is a rare occurrence that the fire line
Speaker 1: blazes through street after street, neighborhood after neighborhood after neighborhood. Okay,
Speaker 1: what is most common during a wildfire scenario when houses
Speaker 1: start to catch on fire is that houses that are
Speaker 1: nowhere near the fire line start to burn. And the
Speaker 1: question is why is that eighty percent of homes that
Speaker 1: ignite as the enduring a wildfire event are not on
Speaker 1: the fire line. Why is that? It is because our
Speaker 1: attics of our homes have a susceptibility to them. They
Speaker 1: have been by building code vented to circulate airflow. Warm
Speaker 1: air in the attic rises and cool air is drawn
Speaker 1: in through lower events. It actually creates a vacuum and
Speaker 1: embers that can travel miles. We used to say half
Speaker 1: a mile an ember could trial travel, and then we
Speaker 1: up to two a mile, and then we up to
Speaker 1: it to two miles. I'm just going to say this,
Speaker 1: embers can travel several miles. And the hotter the fire
Speaker 1: is and the more it's engaged in structures, the more
Speaker 1: embers there are, and the further it travels. Embers can
Speaker 1: retain their ability to ignite material and travel for miles
Speaker 1: and as they in their super light, drifty state pass
Speaker 1: by a home. Under the eaves of a home, those
Speaker 1: embers can literally be and are often sucked into the
Speaker 1: attic space, which becomes at that point the perfect breathing
Speaker 1: barbecue for igniting and maintaining a flame. Ember proof vents
Speaker 1: are a newer style event than the classic vent for attics,
Speaker 1: and they are a vent that has a smaller mesh
Speaker 1: screen that have baffles built into them that don't allow
Speaker 1: hot embers to travel directly in, but knock them down
Speaker 1: as they come through, therefore protecting in the biggest way
Speaker 1: possible a house from catching on fire if it's in
Speaker 1: the vicinity of another wildfire. All right, We're going to
Speaker 1: go to a break and when we come back, we
Speaker 1: will continue this conversation.
Speaker 2: We're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
Speaker 2: KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1: Dean Sharp the house whisper with you on this Sunday morning,
Speaker 1: January twelfth, twenty twenty five. As we still are suffering
Speaker 1: through southern California wildfires here in the Greater Los Angeles area.
Speaker 1: That is the topic of our program. Today, not ongoing
Speaker 1: coverage by me. We have the KFI twenty four hour
Speaker 1: news team right here helping you with that. I am
Speaker 1: taking the focus of our program, given my level of
Speaker 1: expertise with homes, and I'm turning it towards Number one,
Speaker 1: something that we talk about every year, but I'm going
Speaker 1: to talk about again this morning, which is fire hardening
Speaker 1: your home against the risk of wildfire damage. And number
Speaker 1: two something that we haven't talked a lot about because
Speaker 1: this kind of disaster has not struck in this way,
Speaker 1: and that is what is the rebuilding process going to
Speaker 1: be when not just a home burns down or a
Speaker 1: couple of homes burned down, but entire neighborhoods or regions
Speaker 1: of infrastructure go down because of that. What's that going
Speaker 1: to look like? And what's the insurance process and the
Speaker 1: rebuilding process and the expectation all of that coming on
Speaker 1: the program today. So go nowhere, stick with me. We
Speaker 1: were just talking about the number one most important thing
Speaker 1: in my opinion in regards to prepping your home against
Speaker 1: wildfire risk, and that is ember proof vents. It's also
Speaker 1: happens to be the one thing that most people don't
Speaker 1: end up doing, so I'm just gonna repeat myself until
Speaker 1: you're sick of hearing it. Emberproofing the vents around it
Speaker 1: that are flow into your attic is a key, a
Speaker 1: key that gives you a big advantage of not having
Speaker 1: your home catch on fire during a wildfire situation. Now,
Speaker 1: let me be clear about this. When a when a
Speaker 1: forty foot wall of flame is sweeping through your neighborhood
Speaker 1: and approaches your home with you at somewhere in the
Speaker 1: area of fifteen hundred plus degrees, okay, the vent situation
Speaker 1: is not going to make necessarily a huge difference. Okay,
Speaker 1: But understand the statistic, and it's very very important. Eighty
Speaker 1: percent of homes that burn in a wildfire area when
Speaker 1: a wildfire is raging, eighty percent of homes that typically
Speaker 1: burn are not on the fire line when they catch
Speaker 1: on fire. And those homes, those homes are experiencing ember
Speaker 1: related ignition happening. And that's why we change out the vents. Okay. Now,
Speaker 1: another option that we've talked about just this last year,
Speaker 1: and I will now continue every year to discuss this
Speaker 1: not only in terms of fire hardening, but in terms
Speaker 1: of remodeling. A new design for home holmes Another option,
Speaker 1: now which I am a strongly, strongly an advocate of,
Speaker 1: is if you are planning on remodeling your home, that
Speaker 1: you also include remodeling the attic and turning it into
Speaker 1: what we call a conditioned attic space. A conditioned attic
Speaker 1: space simply means this, instead of the attic being outside
Speaker 1: the insulated envelope of your home. In other words, the
Speaker 1: attic insulation is on the floor of the attic and
Speaker 1: that's keeping you know, the home below it cool land
Speaker 1: or warm, you know, when you need it to be.
Speaker 1: But the attic itself is technically outside. It's it's not
Speaker 1: part of the conditioned space. Making the attic part of
Speaker 1: the conditioned space. That means taking the insulation off the
Speaker 1: floor of the attic, putting it into the rafters of
Speaker 1: the roofline itself, so that the roof is the envelope
Speaker 1: that is insulated, and therefore the attic is going to
Speaker 1: be roughly the same temperature as the rest of the
Speaker 1: house when you're cool the house. If it's seventy two
Speaker 1: degrees in the house in the summertime because of the
Speaker 1: air conditioner, the attic is close to that as well.
Speaker 1: If it's nice and toasty warm in the house during
Speaker 1: the cold of winter, the attic is toasty warm as well.
Speaker 1: What is the point, Dean of doing that. Well, I'm
Speaker 1: not going to belabor the other designed advantages of that,
Speaker 1: meaning you could utilize attic space for storage without compromising insulation,
Speaker 1: or the fact that it is typically a better seal,
Speaker 1: a better insulating quality, and energy efficiency for the entire house.
Speaker 1: That it makes your heating and cooling equipment last longer
Speaker 1: because they're not freezing and baking in those extreme temperature
Speaker 1: situations the equipment itself. And there's plenty of other efficiencies
Speaker 1: about that, But here is the number one reason that
Speaker 1: I'm mentioning it this morning. I'm mentioning it this morning
Speaker 1: because a remodeled conditioned attic space that is now part
Speaker 1: of the regular conditioned house has no vents, no standard
Speaker 1: attic vents. Now, there is some vapor weeping vents at
Speaker 1: the top, but those are not in any way, shape
Speaker 1: or form vents that are susceptible to embers or wildfire conditions.
Speaker 1: So a conditioned attic space home is a home that
Speaker 1: doesn't need to have its vents changed out to ember
Speaker 1: proof ens because it doesn't have vents. It doesn't in
Speaker 1: any way, shape or form, invite embers into the inside
Speaker 1: of your home. And that's why I'm mentioning it today.
Speaker 1: So make a note consider you can do a little
Speaker 1: bit of an investigating and of course you can go
Speaker 1: back into our archives of last year's shows and on
Speaker 1: the podcast and find my show on the New Attic
Speaker 1: in which we discuss all of those advantages. And also,
Speaker 1: by the way, pests bugs a non issue with a
Speaker 1: conditioned attic space because no vents, no easy form of
Speaker 1: access into the attic. So food for thought. I dealt
Speaker 1: with this yesterday in terms of a caller who called
Speaker 1: in asking about fire rated windows, what's the mystery of
Speaker 1: fire rated windows? Very quickly because it was on yesterday's program,
Speaker 1: But I'm going to put it on our list today.
Speaker 1: There is no mystery about fire rated windows. A fire
Speaker 1: rated window is essentially nothing more than a standard window
Speaker 1: that instead of having regular what we call annealed glass,
Speaker 1: which is regular old, good old window glass, it has
Speaker 1: tempered glass in its place. And the reason is that
Speaker 1: tempered glass is produced at incredibly high temperatures in the
Speaker 1: factory five thousand degrees plus, and so a fifteen hundred
Speaker 1: degree or two thousand degree wall of fire picking up
Speaker 1: against a tempered glass piece of glass is not going
Speaker 1: to cause it to shatter and crack and burst open.
Speaker 1: And that's the problem with a non fire rated window
Speaker 1: is that the cool of the inside of the house
Speaker 1: and the heat on the outside unevenly heats the glass
Speaker 1: of regular glass and it shatters. And as soon as
Speaker 1: it shatters, now the fire has a hole to enter
Speaker 1: your home through. Okay, So in southern California new construction
Speaker 1: and major remodels, it's code requirement now in the state
Speaker 1: of California to have fire rated glass. If you are
Speaker 1: up against an urban wildfire interface area facing the wilderness area,
Speaker 1: at least those windows have to be fire rated glass.
Speaker 1: Your sliding glass door, if you have one of those,
Speaker 1: which most people do, is already fire rated in the
Speaker 1: sense that a sliding glass door has to be tempered
Speaker 1: glass because it's glass that goes all the way to
Speaker 1: the floor and it's kickable that strength. So not the
Speaker 1: sliders the windows to change them out. Now, again, what
Speaker 1: if that's not in your budget right now and you're
Speaker 1: concerned about maybe two or three years, Dean before we
Speaker 1: get around to switching out those windows. Can I do
Speaker 1: anything to protect my windows until then? Yes, you can.
Speaker 1: We'll talk about that right on the other side of
Speaker 1: the news.
Speaker 2: You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
Speaker 2: KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1: Thanks for joining us on the program today as we
Speaker 1: engage in our ongoing topical coverage of natural disasters and
Speaker 1: wildfires here in southern California. Guess why we're covering this
Speaker 1: this weekend. Yeah, of course I am in the middle
Speaker 1: of first and foremost conversing with you about fire hardening
Speaker 1: your home. I know there are a bunch of questions
Speaker 1: about it. So we've talked about amber proof ns, We've
Speaker 1: talked about remodeling an addic if and remodeled is in
Speaker 1: your future. So okay, let me pause for a second
Speaker 1: and just to get this pushed out of my brain
Speaker 1: on most of these here or what I'm trying to
Speaker 1: do is offer you number one ultimate long term best solution,
Speaker 1: and then if I can offer you short term help,
Speaker 1: get it better solutions. Okay, So, ember proof addic vents
Speaker 1: are a really good idea, and we've covered that. A
Speaker 1: better idea in my opinion, if there is a remodel
Speaker 1: in your future is to include in your remodel budget
Speaker 1: a remodel of the attic space into a conditioned attic
Speaker 1: so that your attic doesn't have to have vents at all. Okay,
Speaker 1: we also, right before the break talked about fire rated windows.
Speaker 1: Fire rated windows are and they aren't a special manufacturer
Speaker 1: out there where you got to go, and now you're
Speaker 1: can have windows look weird and they don't match the
Speaker 1: rest of your house. Every major manufacturer of window makes
Speaker 1: fire rated windows in almost all of their models of windows,
Speaker 1: because it's really not about the window frame or the
Speaker 1: structure itself. It's essentially about and there are a couple
Speaker 1: exceptions there, but it's essentially about just replacing the standard
Speaker 1: annealed glass, which is very heat sensitive, with tempered glass,
Speaker 1: which is not heat sensitive. Because if a fire line
Speaker 1: passes by your house, here's what you don't want. You
Speaker 1: don't want the heat from the fire cracking your windows.
Speaker 1: The windows shatter, and now you have a penetration and
Speaker 1: opening a wide open window literally for the flames to
Speaker 1: lap up and reach inside the house. Okay, that's what
Speaker 1: a fire rated window is all about. Now, if a
Speaker 1: fire rated windows, they're pricey and you get a lot
Speaker 1: of them facing the open space. If a fire rated
Speaker 1: window is in fact not in your financial future, but
Speaker 1: you are concerned about the windows, that you've got another option. Again,
Speaker 1: we discussed it on the previous episode here a yesterday's
Speaker 1: show is fire rated window film? Yeah, the kind of
Speaker 1: film that goes on like you know, tinted windows on
Speaker 1: a car. Okay, what does fire rated window film achieve? Well,
Speaker 1: you could, of course add some tinting and if you
Speaker 1: want a little less light coming in, I wouldn't advise that.
Speaker 1: Generally speaking, you can add some reflectivity for energy and heat.
Speaker 1: But in terms of the fire, what a fire rated
Speaker 1: window film does is it is rated to withstand the
Speaker 1: heat of fire for an hour. That's a class A
Speaker 1: fire rating. Anything that's class A fire rated is designed
Speaker 1: to withstand flame for an hour before it moves through
Speaker 1: it and during that time as the fire line, which
Speaker 1: they move very fast, as you can tell right when
Speaker 1: fire lines are really moving fast, there are winds involved,
Speaker 1: and they move through your house or buy your house quickly.
Speaker 1: So it's not as though you're gonna have to worry
Speaker 1: about like, well, what if the fire is right outside
Speaker 1: my door for an hour and a half. It's typically
Speaker 1: not the case. Fire rated window film that can resist
Speaker 1: flame and heat for an hour will not keep your
Speaker 1: regular glass windows from shattering. Because the glass is the glass.
Speaker 1: It's gonna shatter with the uneven temperature. It will. However,
Speaker 1: it will hold that shattered glass in place so that
Speaker 1: an opening is not created when the glass shatters, and
Speaker 1: therefore the flame still don't have an opportunity to get
Speaker 1: inside the house. Much like a car windshield, an automobile
Speaker 1: windshield with safety glass on it, right, it is an
Speaker 1: automobile windshield is not tempered glass. It's a form of
Speaker 1: safety glass. When a tempered windshield, I mean when a
Speaker 1: automobile windshield, as you have seen countless times, is cracked
Speaker 1: or shattered or even hit with a sledgehammer, right, it
Speaker 1: doesn't just low apart in all bits and pieces, because
Speaker 1: there is a film embedded in between two pieces of
Speaker 1: glass there on the automobile that holds the glass in place. Okay,
Speaker 1: that's the idea. That's the idea of fire rated window film.
Speaker 1: Far less expensive. And are any of these things, by
Speaker 1: the way, a silver bullet that just solves the problem, No,
Speaker 1: not at all, But they help, they help Okay, so
Speaker 1: fire rated window film something is easy. This next thing
Speaker 1: that everybody has the ability to deal with right now,
Speaker 1: and that is get the junk away from your home.
Speaker 1: Anything that can burn, anything that would burn, anything that
Speaker 1: might burn. You got to get it away from your home.
Speaker 1: How far as far as you can. That's it. I'm
Speaker 1: not going to tell you. Yeah, I've seen rules out
Speaker 1: there saying well at least five feet away from the house.
Speaker 1: Are you kidding me? Do you want things catching on
Speaker 1: fire five feet away from your house? Now? I understand
Speaker 1: the majority of homes in southern California are in tracts
Speaker 1: and neighborhoods, and the majority of side yard setbacks are
Speaker 1: five feet Okay, So when it comes to the side
Speaker 1: yards of your house, have nothing there, zero things there. Okay,
Speaker 1: don't just move them away from the wall to the
Speaker 1: outside fence. Just get them out of there. And when
Speaker 1: it comes to the front and backyards, clear it out.
Speaker 1: Push things as far away from the house, pick them up,
Speaker 1: carry them out there. We're not trying to decorate your house.
Speaker 1: We're talking about keeping it safe during a fire threat.
Speaker 1: And so you move all of this stuff and you
Speaker 1: get it as far away from the house as possible. Okay,
Speaker 1: the next conversation that we're going to have is about
Speaker 1: one of my favorite topics that I have recommended again
Speaker 1: and again. There is cost, and but as far as
Speaker 1: I'm concerned, it's worth its weight in gold, and that
Speaker 1: is having a supply and being prepared with FIREJEL, fire gel.
Speaker 1: What is firejel And how is it potentially going to
Speaker 1: save your bacon when it comes to a wildfire situation.
Speaker 1: We'll talk about that right after this has been Home
Speaker 1: with Dean Sharp the House Whisper. Tune into the live
Speaker 1: broadcast on KFI AM six forty every Saturday morning from
Speaker 1: six to eight Pacific time and every Sunday morning from
Speaker 1: nine to noon Pacific time, or anytime on demand on
Speaker 1: the iHeartRadio app.