(11-10-2018, 04:57 PM)Dartz Wrote: Can I ask an utterly retarded and insensitive question? Why are all these houses built out of timber, and then surrounded by trees? It seems a bit - mistaken - in a fire prone region to not have some form of fire break around habitation.
Maybe it's just not visible in the photographs we see
Also. Maybe it's the paranoia getting to me but I found myself wondering if these fires weren't deliberately set, although by home and why I don't know. It's the scary form of paranoia that probably isn't grounded in reality.
It's actually quite simple.
For one: Timber construction is really cheap and fast. Strictly speaking you don't even need to pour a concrete foundation. It also means that when you want to do a (partial) rebuild you don't have to deal with what's basically several tons of rock per cubic meter of wall, and concrete walls aren't exactly as thin as American house walls appear to be. Seriously. Load bearing walls in houses built in the Netherlands are made with poured and reinforced concrete at least 10 centimeters thick, with non-load bearing walls made of drywall.
Of course, lumber based construction is a massive fire hazard. Concrete constructions just endure fire a lot better, although to be fair, make even a concrete house's furniture burn long/hot enough and even concrete will quit. It just generally takes longer.
For another: Building a house surrounded by trees just looks pretty and gets you nature and all those good things close to you. As well as all those bad things, like burning forests with your wooden house being just as much fuel for the fire. I mean, fire don't care, as long as it burns. And wood is wood.