If your house is a lone survivor of a wildfire, are you better off or not?

As you surely already know, a home is more than just “a house”. If I manage to save the structure – and its contents – then I’ll consider it a win. On the other hand, the risk that the homeowner takes to stand and make that battle in a wildfire situation is fairly outsized, too. What kind of contents (and structure) are worth the risk of one’s own life?

This is the kind of thing that has to be planned and prepared for well in advance, with fire-resistant green landscaping (or no plants at all) and firebreaks already in place, structure (and roof, especially) of materials and design to repel fire and to be immune from the extreme heat of nearby conflagration, and some kind of fail-safe area or hidey-hole to retreat to if the firefighting effort fails. That is, a place to hide in for an hour or two while the fire burns over and moves on, and until it is safe to come out again.

People are stupid. They will rebuild and then the next time it burns down they will posit “Nobody could have expected this.”

Look at Florida.

If the neighborhood will rebuild, the person is probably better off as long as roads are passable, and some commercial is still standing close enough that you can buy groceries, and the owners can live there.

Rebuilding is incredibly stressful. You are in temporary housing of some sort for many months, you likely lost many sentimental things that you loved, and you have to make a ton of decisions about the new build.

I don’t know much about fires, but I would assume an area that has been very badly devasted has less likelihood of burning again for many years. Is that right? Or, not right at all, because California the plants grow back quickly.

If the area isn’t going to be rebuilt then property value would go way down for a long time I guess.

My home insurance pays to rebuild, but I’m pretty sure it won’t pay me, so I think most people would rebuild. When I worked for construction we did a house that was destroyed by fire, and our payments came directly from insurance. Personally, I think it should be able to pay out, but there must be a reason they don’t. When I had damage from a hurricane I did receive a check for that. I don’t know why there is a difference? Maybe I’m totally wrong, and remembering how the coverage works incorrectly. I know for sure I received a check for the hurricane damage though.

I spoke to several people whose homes survived the Firestorm the Oakland hills, years later.
They were actually sorry their homes didn’t burn down, sine those homeowners around them had construction crews rebuilding the homes, and were quite noisy. They were also bitter about the new homes being rebuilt larger, and not in character with the homes that were destroyed.

As someone who very recently lost her home to a fire, I really don’t need to think about this one. The answer is – much, much better off.

I am very sorry for your loss.

Oh, no, @Love_my_doggie. I’m so sorry.

Thank you, @Patty_Melt and @Jeruba.

I keep reminding myself that I’m not in Puerto Rico, stranded on an island without food, clean water, and electricity, and that I wasn’t in Las Vegas during the massacre. Those events are true tragedy and horror. When put in context, my own situation is really just an inconvenience. My little family survived, and we’re all fine. And, I’m bolstered by the caring and support of my Jelly-pals.

When I think about losing my own, I think about losing all the precious memories contained in objects in the house and especially photographs. I would hate to have all of them gone, even if my neighborhood were no longer livable. It might end up that I would move away but having some of my family memorabilia to take with me would mean a lot especially since my family is so broken now.

@Love_my_doggie I’ve known about your fire loss and am so sorry.