Roof Fire Danger : Different Laws on Wood Shake, Fire Retardants Crisscross O.C.

Fires that damaged three dwellings in Orange County on Wednesday illustrate not only the danger of wood-shake roofs, fire authorities said, but also the patchwork nature of laws governing shake roofs in the county.

An Anaheim apartment building, where illegal fireworks sparked a fire in its wood-shake roof and displaced 12 families, was built before a 1982 city ordinance requiring newly built wood roofs to be fire retardant.

In Orange, where two fires ignited in wood-shake roofs, there is no general ordinance requiring that shake roofs be fire retardant. One of the fires, however, occurred at a home where a new fire-treated wood-shake roof recently had been installed--apparently having littleeffect in preventing the spread of the blaze.

The fires came on the same day that the Los Angeles City Council gave tentative approval to a measure that would ban wood-shake roofs, whether treated or untreated, citywide. If given final approval next week, Los Angeles would become the first major city in the country to outlaw the popular roofing material, which many fire officials say is hazardous. (Story on Page 6.)

“I think the (Los Angeles) ordinance is great,” said Gail McCloud, Anaheim’s deputy fire marshal.

But McCloud said Anaheim fire officials would not press for a similar law unless supported by the Anaheim City Council.

“The Fire Department is always for things that lessen the possibility of fire damage and destruction. If the City Council felt that it were something that needed to be addressed, we would address it,” McCloud said.

Indeed, most fire officials recommend that, at a minimum, wood roofs be fire retardant. Most would go further and push for a Los Angeles-style total ban on wood-shake roofs, McCloud said.

But political reality often intervenes, officials say.

“Ideally, (the City Council) would ban” wood roofs, said Capt. Ray Montoya, a battalion chief with the Orange Fire Department. “But they are balancing (concerns) of the developers and the business community with what they think is a level of protection for the property owner and resident.”

Several cities in the county, including Santa Ana and Newport Beach, have adopted ordinances similar to that in Anaheim, requiring that wood roofs be fire retardant or non-combustible.

Other cities such as Orange, Brea and Laguna Beach require only that homes in certain designated areas--usually those close to brushland--have wood roofs treated with a fire retardant.

In unincorporated county territory, fire codes now require that all wood roofs be fire retardant, said Capt. Ken Crispin, an engineer with the Orange County Fire Department.

But fire officials caution that a wood-shake or shingle roof treated with a fire retardant is not necessarily fireproof, as was demonstrated in the Orange blaze that destroyed a $300,000 home.

Orange fire authorities said that the home in the 1400 block of Cabrillo Street had recently undergone a remodeling and a new roof was installed.

“They recently had a fire retardant application on the roof and it didn’t work,” said Montoya. “We have got to look at who did (the application) and what they applied.”

Anaheim’s deputy fire marshal, McCloud, said there is often a misperception among homeowners of the effectiveness of fire-treated shake roofs in protecting their homes--something Los Angeles officials may have had in mind in banning even treated wood-shake roofs.

“Obviously (Los Angeles city officials) were taking into consideration the fact that fire retardancy does not last forever, and that depending on the circumstances of the fire and its intensity, even treated roofs will burn,” McCloud said.

However, McCloud said he knew of no instances in Anaheim of a fire-retardant shake roof catching fire.

Lily Eng, Ted Johnson and Nancy Wride contributed to this story.

RESIDENTS ROUTED Fireworks-related fires leave 40 homeless. Part I, Page 1