Nope, but I have seen a B-52 making a low level pass, then banking into a really steep turn, while plugged with a KC-135. That impressed me a tad...

my grandfather house exterior was made concrete. It survived neighborhood fire without any problem. The house roof was covered with red tiles.

Looks like the Martin Mars firebomber will be coming down from Canada on Wed. Pretty amazing plane. Looks like a small spuce goose.

http://www.canada.com/theprovince/news/story.html?id=18e69493-e075-465f-9c7f-088f17f907f2

Having lost one household to a fire, my heart goes out to these poor folks and the brave souls fighting these fires...

However...

I can't think of a quicker, more certain way to bankrupt this country than for us to continue bailing folks out of their stupidity, just because they do it en masse.

When people lose all they own to fires, floods, or economic change, it is unfortunate and sad. When it happens to individuals, they end up collecting insurance or selling at a loss if they prepared properly. Even the best insurance doesn't cover everything, so, as in my case, you take what you get, what you paid for, and you start over.

When it happens to large groups, suddenly our leaders feel this must be mitigated by taxpayer dollars, as if something is signficantly different between the losses suffered by individuals vs. the losses suffered by members of a group. To me, this is akin to buying votes with federal and state revenue.

I've cited it before, and I will continue to bring it up, because it is just as valid now as it was 200+ years ago.

Benjammin, there is truth to what you say. But I'll bet these fires are going to do some damage to the insurance companies. And watch everyone's premiums go up next year to compensate.

Sue

Yes, I see little difference on the private sector economic impact between this and Katrina, except for scale. The thing is, it is economically driven, and if I buy insurance from a company that underwrote a lot in the area in question and didn't hedge the risk by offsetting investments (after all, insurance underwriters make money by selling in a market with higher risk, and should be investing that capital accordingly), then I expect them to raise their rates to offset their losses, and I will be in the market for new insurance when my agent can no longer compete.

My point is that you are supposed to be responsible for the risks you take, whether as an individual or a group. By taking federal money to pay people for losses suffered due to fire, any fire, you are taking money from perhaps thousands, if not millions, of folks who not only probably have far less than those who lost their investment, but also will receive absolutely no benefit from such a payout.

As Mr. Bunce cited, once we open such a door, then it becomes far too easy for those with the power to distribute monies, intended only to fund governmental function, to their own constituents' personal needs at the expense of the entire population. That is the sort of fraud that corrupts the integrity of as system of trust such as ours. We've been doing it for almost a hundred years now, and it is only getting worse.

And watch them (or others) rebuild in the same location. Then the new jillion dollar homes will slide off the hill in the next heavy rain. Happens in Topanga Canyon, the Malibu hills, etc, year after year after year...

They aren't made fire proof becuase you reach a point of deminishing returns very quickly. It is an issue of weight and expense, but also a simple one of, if it strong enough, you just made an oven and everything inside will burn. Oops.

What you can do is not put ceder shakes on your roof. You want "quant" and "picturesque", "country-style" roofs, go with a metal one like the ones on half the barns I know.

Fiberglas shingles sound pretty good to me, or plan ole asphalt roofing...

Roof here is stone coated steel applied like a shake roof and the sides are a concrete stucco -- nice on top and on the side. Problem is still fire starting off the sides (fences, brush and other flammable stuff). The stucco won't last long and if a fire gets to the eaves, it's all over. Inside it's just 2x wood.