The owners of a century-old wooden house that survived Maui wildfires while almost every neighboring property burned to the ground attributes recent renovations for its survival.
“It’s a 100% wood house so it’s not like we fireproofed it or anything,” Atwater Millikin said in an interview with the Los Angeles Times.
She and her husband replaced the asphalt roof with heavy-gauge metal, and they lined the ground with stones up to the drip line of the roof, which overhangs at least three feet, the report noted.
The Millikins also removed foliage near the house because they were concerned about termites spreading to the wooden frame, she said. Their only disaster preparedness effort was to install hurricane ties, she added.
“We love old buildings, so we just wanted to honor the building,” Millikin said. “And we didn’t change the building in any way — we just restored it.”
The home at 271 Front Street was not remarkable before the wildfires but now the red-roofed building stands out, since it alone survived wildfire that raged through the neighborhood.
“It looks like it was photoshopped in,” homeowner Trip Millikin described their house, which contrasts so markedly against surrounding ruins that images of the home have gone viral on social media.
Their Front St. home is a craftsman-inspired “plantation vernacular” dwelling, a style of homes constructed by sugar and pineapple plantation companies in the early 20th century, a Honolulu Civil Beat report noted.
A Native Hawaiian carpenter, who headed most construction projects for the Pioneer Mill Co., used California redwood for its construction, which has some natural fire-resistant properties, Trip Millikin said.
The historic house next door, which burned completely in the August 8 fire was also constructed with California redwood, though, the report noted.
The Millikins installed a commercial-grade steel roof, which provided better protection from flying embers than shingles. The owners initially thought the roof was the biggest reason their home was spared.
Michael Wara, with the Stanford Wood Institute for the Environment, explained the Millikins’ decision to remove existing landscaping directly surrounding the house and replace it with river stones made the biggest difference.
“What folks in the wildfire business call the zone zero or the ember ignition zone, is kind of a key factor in whether homes do or do not burn down,” Wara said in an interview with the Honolulu Civil Beat.
Removing combustible material from the five feet directly around a house is enormously important, he added.
In fires like the one in Lahaina, enormous amounts of flaming embers become airborne. If there’s something combustible next to the house, like a wood fence, a bush or dry grass, it will often ignite the structure, Wara said.
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