Speaker 1: KFI AM six forty. You're listening to Dean Sharp the
Speaker 1: House Whisper on demand on the iHeart radio app. You
Speaker 1: are home with Dean Sharp the House Whisper. That is me. Hey,
Speaker 1: I don't have my mic screen on here. Let me
Speaker 1: put that on there. Makes it a little easier. I
Speaker 1: can bang my face into the microphone. You don't hear it.
Speaker 1: We just finished up an hour of coverage, special coverage
Speaker 1: of Governor Gavin Newsom's town hall in relation to the
Speaker 1: LA wildfires, and so we're starting an hour late, but
Speaker 1: we're running till noon today as always, and I am
Speaker 1: glad that you are with us. I want to jump
Speaker 1: right in because I originally had three hours worth of
Speaker 1: a very important information for you about fire hardening your
Speaker 1: home that I now have two hours to cover. So
Speaker 1: let me just jump right in. Okay, last week I
Speaker 1: spent both episodes of our show talking about fire, and
Speaker 1: it's rare that I would return again to the same
Speaker 1: topic two weeks in a row. But I am, and
Speaker 1: I'm sure you can understand why that is the case.
Speaker 1: I know that if you live in southern California, fire
Speaker 1: coverage is just about all you have seen and heard
Speaker 1: for twenty four to seven, for days and days now
Speaker 1: it appears at present, and let's hope that this is true,
Speaker 1: that the worst of the Eton and the Palisades fires
Speaker 1: are behind us. Eaten is now at eighty one percent containment,
Speaker 1: Palisades at fifty two. That's good news. It's not over,
Speaker 1: but it's good news. We have some wind events coming
Speaker 1: and let's hope that those don't change those numbers in
Speaker 1: any way. But the point is, if you've not been
Speaker 1: directly impacted by either fire, which despite this unprecedented devastation,
Speaker 1: is true for most Southern California residents, simply because this
Speaker 1: is such a large region, or if you live outside
Speaker 1: of SoCal and listen to the show as so many
Speaker 1: people do, or if you're just exhausted, you might be
Speaker 1: ready and hoping to talk about something else. And I
Speaker 1: feel you on that, but I think you and I
Speaker 1: need to have at least one more very important conversation
Speaker 1: before we move on from this. There's a lot of
Speaker 1: talk now about what to do to get a home
Speaker 1: ready for the next wildfire event. Fire hardening is what
Speaker 1: it is referred to, as I talked about it last week,
Speaker 1: and we are revisiting that topic solely this week. And
Speaker 1: here's the reason why. In this last week, it has
Speaker 1: become very apparent to me that there is a lot
Speaker 1: of myth, misinformation, I'm being kind here, misunderstanding, fear, and
Speaker 1: general ignorance about how fire threatens our homes, and all
Speaker 1: across social media and traditional media, we're now seeing all
Speaker 1: sorts of so called solutions from DIY ideas about that
Speaker 1: guy who rigged sprinklers on his roof or got his
Speaker 1: own water tank, to a slew of so called fire
Speaker 1: protection companies that have sprung up virtually overnight in southern
Speaker 1: California and will happily install their so called safety systems.
Speaker 1: At worst, some of these ideas are scams at best, many,
Speaker 1: if not many of most of these ideas are well meaning,
Speaker 1: as they may be, but rooted in ignorance and deeply misguided.
Speaker 1: And nearly all of them are very costly costly to implement,
Speaker 1: and potentially even more costly when a fire does threaten
Speaker 1: your home after you've installed one and they failed to
Speaker 1: do what they have promised to do. I do not
Speaker 1: want that to happen to you. I don't want you
Speaker 1: to spend one more dollar on fire hardening your home
Speaker 1: then you reasonably need to. But also let me be
Speaker 1: really clear, I want all of you, all you, no
Speaker 1: matter where you live, to invest more toward fire hardening
Speaker 1: your home than you already have. The way to do
Speaker 1: that is to do what I do every week, which
Speaker 1: is to help you, as I often say, better understand
Speaker 1: that place where you live. We need to talk rationally
Speaker 1: about fire and what your home's vulnerabilities to it really
Speaker 1: are in real time as fires are actually happening. It
Speaker 1: might surprise you what that is and what it isn't
Speaker 1: It will definitely inform you. I hope it equips and
Speaker 1: encourages you to take the right steps. So again, let
Speaker 1: me be very clear. If you live in southern California,
Speaker 1: you need to know that the greatest risk of disaster
Speaker 1: striking your home is fire, no, not earthquakes. Statistically, by far,
Speaker 1: the greatest risk of disaster striking your home in Southern
Speaker 1: California is fire. Earthquakes come in second, and the Greater
Speaker 1: Los Angeles area is in fact the highest fire risk
Speaker 1: region in the country. But also let's remember, fire happens everywhere.
Speaker 1: What town anywhere in America does not have a fire
Speaker 1: department it's not just about wildfires. So if you live
Speaker 1: far enough away from LA or any open space, then
Speaker 1: if you think, hey, no worries, that's not good thinking.
Speaker 1: We're having this conversation now because of the LA wildfires.
Speaker 1: But what we're about to talk about is for everyone
Speaker 1: who is listening to my voice right now. Okay, so
Speaker 1: I urge you to stay with me. Listen carefully. We're
Speaker 1: going to get some news and then we'll begin. You
Speaker 1: are listening to Home with Dean Sharp, the House Whisper.
Speaker 2: You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
Speaker 2: KFI Am six forty.
Speaker 1: We are having a very very serious, as an organized
Speaker 1: and succinct conversation as possible about the essence better understanding
Speaker 1: how to fire harden your home. We talked about this
Speaker 1: last week in conjunction with a whole lot of other things,
Speaker 1: and so the last two episodes, the last three episodes
Speaker 1: of our program here, if you're a podcast listener, all
Speaker 1: dedicated to the themes surrounding the LA wildfires and homes today. Though,
Speaker 1: I have a very very singular goal, and that is
Speaker 1: to help you assess how a fire will most likely
Speaker 1: interact with your home so you can take the most
Speaker 1: affordable and most effective steps to protect it aka what's
Speaker 1: known as fire hardening. Okay, And I'm going to try
Speaker 1: and do this by doing these three things. Number one,
Speaker 1: explaining exactly what parts of your home are truly vulnerable
Speaker 1: to what and when? Okay. Number two to address the
Speaker 1: vulnerabilities most effectively, and then three to direct you to
Speaker 1: the resource verses that I recommend to get all of
Speaker 1: this stuff done. Okay. And then along the way, as
Speaker 1: a sidebar on this, we're going to be hopefully just
Speaker 1: by the process of doing it right, debunking fallacies and
Speaker 1: fantasies about what's going to help. There's already a lot
Speaker 1: of myths and fear based gimmicks out there that, in
Speaker 1: my opinion and in the opinion of just about every
Speaker 1: professional fire personnel that I have talked to, these things
Speaker 1: are are set up mostly to waste your time and
Speaker 1: your money while not making you significantly safer. Now, I'm
Speaker 1: not going to be getting down on any one particular thing,
Speaker 1: nor am I going to tell you that if you
Speaker 1: can afford it, that you you know, shouldn't put layer
Speaker 1: upon layer upon layer of other things fire hardening for
Speaker 1: your home. But here's what I know. If if we
Speaker 1: immediately jump to one of two extremes, one being you
Speaker 1: know what, I don't live anywhere near these wildfires. I'm good. Okay.
Speaker 1: That's a big mistake. And the other big mistake is
Speaker 1: to imply from media coverage that we've seen, because it's
Speaker 1: quite sensational, that everybody should get a ten thousand gallon
Speaker 1: reservoir in their backyard and have a personal fire hydrant
Speaker 1: installed to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Speaker 1: Then guess what's going to happen. None of you are
Speaker 1: going to think seriously about fire hardening your home. Okay,
Speaker 1: Only the wealthiest among us are going to make any efforts.
Speaker 1: That's a problem too. The fact of the matter is
Speaker 1: everybody can afford to fire harden their home adequately. Nothing
Speaker 1: is a silver bullet, nothing nothing. Nature has its way.
Speaker 1: Right at the end of the day, things happen that
Speaker 1: you can take every imaginable preventative measure against and still
Speaker 1: suffer loss. But how reasonably and effectively and wisely can
Speaker 1: we actually hedge our bets. That's what we're talking about today.
Speaker 1: Lesson number one is this fire hardening should always, in
Speaker 1: my opinion, be separated into two phases of a fire's
Speaker 1: approach that we prepare for in very different ways. All right,
Speaker 1: two phases. There is number one, when the fire is
Speaker 1: near near you. Number two is when the flames are here. Now,
Speaker 1: why do I make that distinction. I make that distinction
Speaker 1: very simply because your home is at risk when the
Speaker 1: fire is near. In fact, statistically, your home igniting is
Speaker 1: at highest risk when the fire is near. And yet
Speaker 1: most people when they think of fire hardening their home,
Speaker 1: and this is not irrelevant by any means, but most
Speaker 1: people prepare for when the flames are here. Okay, preparing
Speaker 1: your home for when the flames are here is not enough.
Speaker 1: It is not enough by far. And so I want
Speaker 1: you to get this into your brain. Less than one.
Speaker 1: Fire hardening separated into two phases, when the fire is near,
Speaker 1: when the flames are here, lesson two. Let's talk about
Speaker 1: when the fire is near, the first and biggest threat. Okay,
Speaker 1: Now you talk to all sorts of people. You can
Speaker 1: watch all sorts of TikTok. I guess you can watch
Speaker 1: TikTok videos again for the moment you can talk to,
Speaker 1: you can watch all sorts of videos. You can see
Speaker 1: all sorts of social media stuff talking about oh, we
Speaker 1: do this, we do that, look at this, look at that.
Speaker 1: If you actually and here's my suggestion, if you're online
Speaker 1: looking for videos about how to fire harden your home,
Speaker 1: make sure the person who is staring at you is
Speaker 1: you know, has a badge on all right, has a
Speaker 1: badge and actually comes from works in you know, fire
Speaker 1: protection services, in the sense that they actually are firefighters, captains, commanders,
Speaker 1: experience firefighters. They will tell you what they know to
Speaker 1: be true. Okay, everybody else, you know, it's hit and
Speaker 1: miss at best. So the first and biggest threat, the
Speaker 1: first and biggest mistake that most homeowners make in their
Speaker 1: fire hardening thoughts is focusing solely on face two when
Speaker 1: the flames are here. Why is that a mistake, Because
Speaker 1: the first and biggest threat embers. Embers, not forty foot
Speaker 1: walls of flame burning at fifteen hundred degrees. If that
Speaker 1: happens and is near your home, you know what, we
Speaker 1: are all rolling the dice at that point, right. But
Speaker 1: the thing you have the biggest control over, the thing
Speaker 1: that is most affordable for you, and the thing that
Speaker 1: is repeatedly proves out the statistics ninety percent of the
Speaker 1: homes that burn in a wildfire event ignite before the
Speaker 1: fire line arrives at the house. And you wonder how
Speaker 1: these things get out of control so quickly, Okay, even
Speaker 1: you know, in a windstorm like we've just experienced in
Speaker 1: the last few weeks, it's because the fire line is
Speaker 1: out there. It's out there in the in the area right,
Speaker 1: it's in the hillside, it's and the next thing, you know,
Speaker 1: before anybody knows it or realizes it, a house one
Speaker 1: block in is on fire, and then a house two
Speaker 1: blocks over is on The fire is not here yet,
Speaker 1: or we so we think, But the fire has arrived
Speaker 1: in the form of embers, those tiny little golden sparks
Speaker 1: that are flying through the air. Those embers floating through
Speaker 1: the air are the greatest threat to your home when
Speaker 1: any kind of fire erupt any kind of fire, by
Speaker 1: the way, erupts anywhere within miles of you, period, because
Speaker 1: they can they they a single ember itself, we know,
Speaker 1: can travel two miles on the wind and still be
Speaker 1: an effective source of ignition. And I say any kind
Speaker 1: of fire, and this is why I want everybody listening
Speaker 1: to me, because it isn't just the wildfires burning like,
Speaker 1: I don't live anywhere near you know, I live in Torrents.
Speaker 1: I don't live anywhere near an open space. Well, what
Speaker 1: if your neighbors, you know, smoking in bed two houses
Speaker 1: down from you or on the next block, and their
Speaker 1: house catches on fire. When that house starts spitting embers,
Speaker 1: you are at risk. Okay. When the car fire that
Speaker 1: happens over on the freeway for some reason ignites some
Speaker 1: palm fronds and starts throwing embers in the wind, you
Speaker 1: are at risk. I'm not trying to make anybody panic,
Speaker 1: just the opposite. I just want to be reasonable to you.
Speaker 1: That fire carries its first and major threat to your
Speaker 1: home on the breeze via embers. Okay, Now take a
Speaker 1: moment to understand the implications of this statistic. Ninety percent
Speaker 1: of homes that burn in a wildfire event ignite before
Speaker 1: the fire arrives. Am I saying that if the homes
Speaker 1: in the Palisades and Altadena had been ember resistant, and
Speaker 1: forget about fireproof for the moment, just ember resistant. Am
Speaker 1: I saying that those fires would have likely moved somewhere
Speaker 1: in the area of maybe ninety percent slower, and those
Speaker 1: neighborhoods may have suffered ninety percent less damage, And yeah,
Speaker 1: that's exactly what I'm saying. Okay, likely because the speed
Speaker 1: at which a fire moves through an open brush area
Speaker 1: is almost entirely dependent upon the fuel that's available to
Speaker 1: it and the wind. But the speed at which a
Speaker 1: fire moves through a structured neighborhood area is almost entirely
Speaker 1: dependent on on how vulnerable those structures are to the
Speaker 1: front of the fire, which is not the flames but
Speaker 1: the ember's blowing. Okay, let's take a look at your home.
Speaker 1: What parts are ember vulnerable? Okay? Defensible space that is,
Speaker 1: you know, and normally the number gets thrown out as
Speaker 1: one hundred feet, but let's face it, the reality is
Speaker 1: most homes have little five foot sideyards and you can't
Speaker 1: control what's on the other side of that five foot wall.
Speaker 1: But the point is this, get the junk away from
Speaker 1: your house, the stuff that can burn, Get it away
Speaker 1: from your house. That is ember ignitable and gutters, not
Speaker 1: the gutters themselves, but all the dry leaves sitting in
Speaker 1: your neglected gutters are vulnerable atticts and crawl spaces via
Speaker 1: the vents that keep those things by code ventilated. These
Speaker 1: are the major threats. Now, notice I did not say
Speaker 1: your exterior walls, or your windows, or your roof these
Speaker 1: are or should be Class A fire rated surfaces. They
Speaker 1: are not necessarily vulnerable to embers. Okay, not in the
Speaker 1: way that exposed wood and eves and at events. Are
Speaker 1: all right now to talk more about this, We're gonna
Speaker 1: have my special guest on, Kelly berkampas who is the
Speaker 1: co founder and vice president of brand guard Vents, my
Speaker 1: number one recommendation for your ember proofens, especially if you
Speaker 1: live here in southern California. I'm going to have her
Speaker 1: on next, but first let's hear some news and then
Speaker 1: we will continue.
Speaker 2: You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
Speaker 2: KFI A M six forty.
Speaker 1: You are Home with Dean Sharp, the house whisper. That's
Speaker 1: me continuing to do what I hope I accomplish every
Speaker 1: week that we're together, which is helping you to better
Speaker 1: understand that place where you live. We're talking about fire hardening.
Speaker 1: I'm talking about reasonable effective. May this be Let me
Speaker 1: just you know, I'm not trying to toot a horn here.
Speaker 1: I'm just trying to underscore the importance of the topic,
Speaker 1: and that is this may be one of the most,
Speaker 1: if not the most important conversation that you and I
Speaker 1: are going to have this year in regards to just
Speaker 1: the big things in life. And what we were just
Speaker 1: talking about before the break was the lesson, this critical
Speaker 1: lesson that I need every homeowner everywhere, but especially living
Speaker 1: here in southern California to understand, and that is when
Speaker 1: it comes to fire hardening a home, the most important
Speaker 1: thing that you must do first before worrying about anything else,
Speaker 1: is to get your home emberproofed. We'll talk about flame
Speaker 1: proofing if that's even possible, on what level that's next,
Speaker 1: But emberproofing your home is critical because, to repeat this
Speaker 1: critically important statistic, ninety percent of the homes that burn
Speaker 1: in a wildfire event ignite before the fire line actually
Speaker 1: arrives at the house. Was that true of the Palisades,
Speaker 1: Yes it was. Was it true of Alta Dina and
Speaker 1: the Eaten Fire, Yes, it's true of every fire. Embers
Speaker 1: come first. They are the first and greatest enemy to
Speaker 1: your home being threatened in a fire. Now, to help
Speaker 1: me further deep dive into that, I have a very
Speaker 1: very special guest on the phone line, Kelly berkampas co
Speaker 1: founder and Vice president of brand Guard Events. Brand Guard
Speaker 1: is unashamingly my number one recommendation for your Ember proof events.
Speaker 1: If you live here in Southern California or anywhere, just
Speaker 1: know that. And Kelly, are you on the line with me?
Speaker 3: Hi Am Dean, Hello, good morning.
Speaker 1: Good morning. I know you are tired because you guys
Speaker 1: have been filling orders like crazy, and actually I don't
Speaker 1: want you to get any rest. I want you to
Speaker 1: continue to fill orders over there because I want everybody
Speaker 1: in Southern California to effectively make their house safe. And
Speaker 1: that starts as we were saying, with embers, right. Can
Speaker 1: you just you can just to start here? Tell me
Speaker 1: how did brand Guards start? Where you guys headquartered? Give
Speaker 1: us a quick story Rundown.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Well, first of all, I want to thank you for
Speaker 3: having me on because you're giving me a platform to
Speaker 3: reach so many people to educate on the topic of
Speaker 3: Mber resistant events. Because I've been doing this for almost
Speaker 3: twenty years now and it's difficult to reach and educate
Speaker 3: and let everybody know. So thank you first and foremost.
Speaker 3: But yeah, so the idea the company was founded by
Speaker 3: a Southern California firefighter named Brent and he's actually still
Speaker 3: a firefighter in Orange County, and he was on a
Speaker 3: fire back in two thousand and three called the Old Fire.
Speaker 3: It was a very distructive fire in San Bernardino. They
Speaker 3: lost twenty four homes, I'm sorry, five hundred homes in
Speaker 3: twenty four hours. And his engine was one of the
Speaker 3: first to respond. And what they noticed was they were
Speaker 3: driving street after street after street, unable to save these
Speaker 3: homes because the attics were already on fire. And I
Speaker 3: think it's public knowledge that if the attic is already
Speaker 3: on fire, there's not much the firemen can do, especially
Speaker 3: in a time of chaos like what happens during a wildfire.
Speaker 3: They have to keep driving and they're going to look
Speaker 3: for a home that actually has a chance of being
Speaker 3: saved once they pull up. And so he started wondering
Speaker 3: why these attics were all on fire, and so he
Speaker 3: was observing while they were driving the embers, amount of
Speaker 3: embers that were getting blown directly into the ad events,
Speaker 3: and he realized that that was how they were catching
Speaker 3: fire so quickly, because they cannot compete with the speed
Speaker 3: and the amounts of embers that are flying during these wildfires.
Speaker 3: And so he came away from that fire, just feeling
Speaker 3: completely frustrated and you know, devastated at the loss and
Speaker 3: the lack of being able to do anything about it
Speaker 3: while he was there, and so he went on a
Speaker 3: mission to try to find a solution that homeowners could
Speaker 3: put in their homes to prevent that from ever happening again.
Speaker 3: And so when I heard about his idea, of course
Speaker 3: I was, you know, very passionate, excited about it from
Speaker 3: the start, and you know, we started our journey from
Speaker 3: that point on of creating the design, getting it approved,
Speaker 3: getting it tested. We had a lot of help from
Speaker 3: industry people. California has enacted their building codes in two
Speaker 3: thousand and eight specifically you know, for ember resistant events
Speaker 3: and many other things as well. But yeah, it is
Speaker 3: a thing for new construction in the wildfire zones, and
Speaker 3: we're just trying to get the word out. Also, do
Speaker 3: the millions of homes that are already existing and already
Speaker 3: built to get retrofitted with vents as well?
Speaker 1: Exactly exactly now, your vents are on the Fire Marshal's
Speaker 1: approved list for the state of California. They are cal
Speaker 1: fire approved essentially, just to put it succinctly, what is it?
Speaker 1: Give me a real truncated version of what is the
Speaker 1: hairy process of going through all of that and getting
Speaker 1: your vents on that list.
Speaker 3: It is definitely a difficult process. What you have to
Speaker 3: do to be a vent that's listed on that process
Speaker 3: is you have to show that your vent can resist embers,
Speaker 3: playing and radiant heat. It's a three part test, and
Speaker 3: even in the flame and radiant heat portion, it goes
Speaker 3: into a horizontal position and a vertical position. So you're
Speaker 3: listing with the fates can be you're listed, but it
Speaker 3: also will designate what position your vent is approved to
Speaker 3: be installed in. Some people are only vertical, some are
Speaker 3: horizontal and vertical. Brand Guard Events is both horizontal and
Speaker 3: vertical position because vents are installed in many ways on
Speaker 3: the home. And then also the mber test as well.
Speaker 1: I got you, and so you're on the list. Okay,
Speaker 1: So I'm dying to ask you this question because I've
Speaker 1: been talking about the fact that nine homes ignite before
Speaker 1: the fire line gets and this has been true of
Speaker 1: the Palisades and the eaten fires. I want to hear it. Now.
Speaker 1: We're going to go to a break real quick. When
Speaker 1: we come back, I want to know if you guys
Speaker 1: have clients in the palisades and if so, how did
Speaker 1: those houses fair?
Speaker 3: So?
Speaker 1: Can you hang on with me? Kelly?
Speaker 3: Of course?
Speaker 1: All right, more talk about amberproof fire events with my
Speaker 1: special guest, Kelly bercompas co founder and vice president of
Speaker 1: Brand Guard Events.
Speaker 2: When we return, you're listening to Home with Dean Sharp
Speaker 2: on demand from KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1: We are talking about sane effective ways of affordably fire
Speaker 1: hardening your home. Lot of crazy thoughts out there right now,
Speaker 1: a lot of misguided thoughts and some scams also, And
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna I'm not going to get on any
Speaker 1: one particular you know, rant against any one particular group
Speaker 1: of people or company. I'm just letting you know as
Speaker 1: a homeowner that there is a way to sanely and
Speaker 1: provenly provenly is that even word fire hard in your home?
Speaker 1: We're talking about that today. In fact, right now, we're
Speaker 1: talking about one of the most if not the most
Speaker 1: important first conversation, and that is ember proofing your home
Speaker 1: where ninety percent of homes ignite before the fire ever arrives.
Speaker 1: And to do that, I've got online with me Kelly
Speaker 1: berkampas co founder and vice president of Brand Guard vents.
Speaker 1: Brand Guard has been a vent company that I've been
Speaker 1: recommending to you four years. Now, what's different today, I'll
Speaker 1: tell you what's different. You know, because of this recent disaster,
Speaker 1: I probably have your attention a little bit more. So
Speaker 1: I'm taking advantage of it in order to get you
Speaker 1: serious about this. Kelly's on the line with me. Kelly,
Speaker 1: right before the break, I am told you that I
Speaker 1: was going to ask you a question. You guys, brand Guard,
Speaker 1: do you have clients in the palis a and if so,
Speaker 1: how did those houses fare?
Speaker 3: Seeing we are so excited to see the success stories
Speaker 3: coming out of the Palisades fire for the homes with
Speaker 3: our events. As you know, installing our events by itself,
Speaker 3: just by itself, cannot guarantee to save your home. We're
Speaker 3: just a piece of the puzzle. However, we're such a
Speaker 3: huge piece of that puzzle that by not installing the events,
Speaker 3: you know, you just can't. Really it's really hard to
Speaker 3: see success stories, you know, without them, And so as
Speaker 3: I've been going and reaching out and looking things up
Speaker 3: on the databases, it's been devastating to see the homes
Speaker 3: that you know, did not make it. However, you know,
Speaker 3: it is a bright spot to see the success stories.
Speaker 3: I mean, we have homes that every other home on
Speaker 3: the shot burned except for homes that had our events
Speaker 3: in them. We've had a whole hoa community, a townhome
Speaker 3: community that survived when things around it burned down. And
Speaker 3: so the stories just kind of go on and on
Speaker 3: and on, and you know it, really, after doing this
Speaker 3: for so long, it just furthers me even more to
Speaker 3: just keep continuing down the path of education for the
Speaker 3: importance events like ours, they really make a difference, not
Speaker 3: just in lab but if they're going to have a
Speaker 3: real life test. I mean, this fire, I don't know
Speaker 3: that we'll ever see a situation worse than this.
Speaker 1: Again, well, let's hope we don't. For sure, let's hope
Speaker 1: we absolutely do not. And and I am glad to
Speaker 1: hear that those people who invested wisely in your venting
Speaker 1: that their houses are still standing. And that's what I want,
Speaker 1: and that's what I wanted for the entire neighborhood.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and Dean, if I may the costs you talk
Speaker 3: about investing, I was looking at, you know, what those
Speaker 3: home owners paid when they had them installed versus the
Speaker 3: value of their home that has been saved, and you're
Speaker 3: talking less than zero point one percent of the value
Speaker 3: of the home is what they paid to install, right,
Speaker 3: And so you know when you look at that, it
Speaker 3: really is such a small investment to save your home exactly.
Speaker 1: Let me ask you this, Kelly ember proof vents versus
Speaker 1: fine mesh screens. You know, that's another thing that's on
Speaker 1: social media right now. You got a lot of DIY
Speaker 1: guys out there, guys who kind of look and sound
Speaker 1: like me in the sense of like I'm a home expert.
Speaker 1: And let me tell you this. You can just go
Speaker 1: down to the hardware store, get yourself some eythinch find
Speaker 1: mesh screen and put this over the back of your event.
Speaker 1: You're good to go. Tell us a little bit about that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, look, if you have no extra money,
Speaker 3: no extra budget, and the literal only thing that you
Speaker 3: can do is put some fine mesh on, then that
Speaker 3: is better than what you currently have on your home. However,
Speaker 3: you just need to understand the level of protection you're
Speaker 3: getting and what you're not getting. And so if you
Speaker 3: remember when we talked about the building code and the
Speaker 3: testing and to be listed on cal fire, you have
Speaker 3: to prove that you can stop three things members, but
Speaker 3: also flames and radiant heat. And so if you were
Speaker 3: to take, for example, like a screen from a patio door,
Speaker 3: screen from a window, which is essentially what the fine
Speaker 3: mesh is. So you put a screen, lay it horizontal,
Speaker 3: put a fire underneath it, put your hand on the
Speaker 3: back side of that screen. Your hand is going to burn.
Speaker 3: There is no way that a screen can stop direct
Speaker 3: flame and radiant heat from coming through that screen. Whereas
Speaker 3: vents that are listed on how fire, especially when they
Speaker 3: have both orientations listed. That's really critical to see that
Speaker 3: you have the horizontal and the vertical because vents are
Speaker 3: installed in both ways. And so the reason that's important
Speaker 3: being is that insulation which is right inside your attic,
Speaker 3: and would which is also right inside your attic, they
Speaker 3: can ignite simply from radiant heat alone. You don't even
Speaker 3: need to have the flame touching. They can ignite simply
Speaker 3: from radiant heat at temperatures of I think wood is
Speaker 3: three hundred and ninety degrees fahrenheit. Insulation is something like
Speaker 3: four hundred and fifty degrees fahrenheit. And so that's why
Speaker 3: it's super important for people to understand find mesh can
Speaker 3: be an option if that is your absolutely only option.
Speaker 3: But again, you just need to understand the protection you're
Speaker 3: not getting and then ask yourself, you know, what is
Speaker 3: the trade off? What is worth it?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Yeah, exactly, all right, let's talk about that. Let's
Speaker 1: talk about heat and flame part of the vent. This
Speaker 1: is a fancy word that not a lot of people
Speaker 1: have heard before. Into messent and into messent coding, okay,
Speaker 1: and into messin coding is a coating or anything that
Speaker 1: when it heats up, it expands, it bubbles out, and
Speaker 1: it grows. Your vents are covered in an into messent coding,
Speaker 1: which means that when there is not extreme heat up
Speaker 1: against them, they're just sitting there like a normal vent,
Speaker 1: but they are knocking down, baffling down, and not permitting
Speaker 1: embers to blow through. But when and I'm getting a
Speaker 1: little bit ahead of myself, but I only have you
Speaker 1: for this segment here, when the fire line actually gets
Speaker 1: to the house, if there is fire, like you were
Speaker 1: just saying, flame right on the other side of that wall,
Speaker 1: something happens to your vents. That again, it does not
Speaker 1: happen to fine screen meshure or any standard vent. And
Speaker 1: that is and correct me if I'm wrong. At a
Speaker 1: certain temperature, I want to say, well, you tell me
Speaker 1: the temperature, but at a certain temperature that represents an
Speaker 1: imminent heat threat, the coating on your vent bubbles out
Speaker 1: and seals the vent, closes it off so that a
Speaker 1: flame doesn't even have the opportunity of making its way in.
Speaker 1: What you do, you know offhand what the temperature is
Speaker 1: that that coating reacts that way.
Speaker 3: I do, And the temperature is roughly three hundred and
Speaker 3: fifty six degrees fahrenheit. And we actually have something better
Speaker 3: than a.
Speaker 1: Coding three fifty degrees okay, yeah, no, go ahead, go.
Speaker 3: Ahead, yeah, and we actually have Our intermscent is actually
Speaker 3: even better than a coding. Our intermascent technology is like
Speaker 3: a it is a strip. It's a graphite mixed with graphite.
Speaker 3: And what that means is our intermscent strips that are
Speaker 3: tucked inside the baffles do everything that you said they can.
Speaker 3: It's the intermscent. However, they are weather tested, so they're
Speaker 3: going to that strip in there is going to last
Speaker 3: the same amount. It's going to expand in a split
Speaker 3: second when that extreme heat and extreme flames approach the vent,
Speaker 3: it will expand in a split second. Filling up, feeling
Speaker 3: off the vent, and it's going to work the same
Speaker 3: whether it's day one that it was installed, or day
Speaker 3: fifty or sixty, or year fifty or sixty. So that's
Speaker 3: a huge benefit of that material that's tucked inside.
Speaker 1: All Right, Kelly, listen, Hey, I know we hadn't planned
Speaker 1: on this, but there's still like two or three really
Speaker 1: important questions I want to ask you. Can you hang on?
Speaker 1: I've got to go to a break. Can you hang
Speaker 1: on for one more segment with me?
Speaker 3: I can, of course.
Speaker 1: All right, you're hang tight. Everybody hang tight. We're at
Speaker 1: the top of the hour. We will be back with
Speaker 1: more information about emberproofing your home. This is Dean Sharp,
Speaker 1: the House Whisper on KFI. This has been home with
Speaker 1: Dean Sharp, the House Whisper. Tune into the live broadcast
Speaker 1: on KFI AM six forty every Saturday morning from six
Speaker 1: to eight Pacific time, and every Sunday morning from nine
Speaker 1: to noon Pacific time, or anytime on demand on the
Speaker 1: iHeartRadio app.