Along with the majority of houses in suburban and rural areas having metal (Colourbond) roofs and brick walls means that the issue of embers discussed in the article would not be as dangerous to homes.
Re:Built to Burn
by el_benhameen on Saturday November 17, 2018 @04:29PM
(#18477484)
Brick walls are unfortunately not a good choice in earthquake-prone California.
What you are forgetting here is that people and the market build houses with a short lifespan in mind. They could as easily build new houses with reinforced concrete. And if there was that much earthquake consideration you would see
support structures and dampeners as part of the regulation in non-trivial buildings (https://resources.realestate.co.jp/buy/earthquake-building-c...) (Also see regulation in Greece and Italy -- https://earthquaketrack.com/p/greece/recent).
The real estate market forces cheap wooden houses. It is not tradition or earthquakes... I feel here in California there is dangerous complacency regarding earthquakes (https://www.economist.com/united-states/2018/02/03/america-i...). People fear them but the rarity has transformed the fear into wishful thinking and avoidance.
They did the same mistake with fuel buildup years ago, but it seems the transition to new system was much quicker.