To the editor: Proper now in Los Angeles, we’re seeing what occurs after we construct properties with wooden framing as an alternative of tilt-up metal bolstered cement partitions that might be extra fire-resistant. (“2 dead and more than 1,000 homes, businesses, other buildings destroyed in L.A. County fires,” Jan. 8)
We residents are too silly to insist on constructing codes which might be really fire-resistant. After all, we’d nonetheless want to satisfy earthquake requirements, which might be performed with steel-reinforced cement supplies even higher than wood-frame constructions.
If we’re good, we must always encourage those that are dropping their properties now to rebuild fire-resistant. Insurance coverage firms ought to welcome that method. As expertise is gained with fire-resistant properties, they’ll most likely be inexpensive.
One of many firms I labored for years in the past was in a tilt-up cement facility that I believed was very protected and certainly fire-resistant. The know-how exists; we simply have to revise our constructing codes to encourage extra fire-resistant constructions.
Douglas M. Chapman, Santa Ana
