STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK

John Vaillant in his book “Fire Weather” described how houses filled with modern furnishings made of plastic, wood products bound together with glues and resins,  polyester and nylon upholstery and polyurethane stuffing can become engulfed in flames in as little as three and a half minutes.

That compares with homes filled with wooden tables and chairs, lace curtains and couches made of cotton upholstery that can smolder for 35 minutes, giving firefighters a chance to save them.

That, coupled with the increasing threat of wildfire throughout the American West, has prompted some insurance agencies to stop insuring homes in areas at risk of wildfire or increase insurance rates. And it’s prompted homeowners in Idaho and elsewhere to wonder if they will be able to get fire insurance in the future.

In response to the Palisades and Eaton fires, which wiped out 16,200 homes, schools, libraries and businesses across 37,400 acres, the City of Sun Valley has embarked on a mission to make the entire city fire wise down to the trees that are planted.

“We have a number of citizens who were impacted by the Palisades fire—their childhood home being burned to the ground or the homes of relatives,” Sun Valley Mayor Peter Hendricks told a packed conference room at the Limelight Hotel during a roundtable sponsored by Sun Valley Economic Development. “That inspired our determination to actively work to reduce wildfire risk by becoming fire wise.”

City leaders started by revamping municipal code, resulting in a 17-page code with 578 ordinances that took four city council meetings to construct. The city is reviewing the result of its municipal code regarding materials allowed in new reconstruction.

Among the items Sun Valley has tackled is power lines and trees.

There are a lot of shake roofs in the city, dead trees and trees leaning against houses and condos, Hendricks said. There is mulch five feet out from houses when it should be gravel.

“And wooden fences that come right up to the house are putting firewood right next to your door.”

Hendricks said he recently removed nine trees from his yard, which he said is not very large.

“They were alive and healthy, but they were leaning on my house. We’re doing everything we can to mitigate the fire risk in Sun Valley.”

“The city cannot say, ‘You need to remove these,’ but they could be a problem in the event of a fire. How many times do you need to be told: Don’t put BBQs next to the house.  You can’t legislative stupidity. We can’t make laws to make you do the right thing but we will try to make it easier for homeowners.”

The City has applied for grants to remove trees in the right away. In some cases, tree roots are growing around water and sewer pipes so that removing them will solve two problems.

Hendricks noted that trees growing taller than 20 feet can cast embers two miles away. Given that, the city is mandating that homeowners can no longer plant trees that grow more than 20 feet.

The Los Angeles fire was the second biggest natural disaster to happen in California, insurers say.  In some cases, insurance covered just 40 percent of possessions and did not cover rent for permanent housing.

Patrick Buchanan of State Farm Insurance in Hailey said he frequently gets calls from homeowners who tell him they just put on a new fire wise roof and so are wondering if they get a discount.

“I tell them: You get insurance,” he said.

“If you call me and tell me you’ve got a 15-year old shake roof, you’re dead,” added Jack Dies, founder of Sun Valley Insurance Inc. which specializes in high-value homes and commercial insurance and is licensed in 38 states.

“The main thing is about protecting your home. What’s going to get you are embers that fly in from a fire two miles away. They get on the roof and in the gutter and sucked up in the eaves,” added Buchanan.

Panelists said that the city of McCall recently did fire modeling where they took historical modeling to see where fire would move based on where vegetation and winds align to push fires into the community. Then they base planning and zoning decisions on that.

Buchanan rattled off a checklist of things that make homes more difficult to insure. Consider:

Is your home in a forested area?

Accessible year round?

Can you get a fire truck in and turned around and back out?

Is the access road dirt or gravel?

Is it on a steep hillside?

Is the address posted clearly?

Does the home have wood fences and decks?

“We’re not going to see barbecues on porch much longer,” he added.

Buchanan said he and other insurers offer assessments to help homeowners figure out how to “harden” their homes.

But, in general, homeowners should count on more restrictions and higher premiums. Insurance companies had $800 billion in the bank to cover wildfire in Palisades and Eaton, and they lost $5 billion, said Dies. Insurance companies pulled out because they’ couldn’t get enough money.

“There’s going to be a lot of change in the wind,” he added.

“We need to make sure there’s enough money in the pool to make you whole again,” said Buchanan. “If we try to hold that premium down, there won’t be enough money there when you need it to make you whole.”