A Chico-based general contractor with a degree in architecture is attempting to use pre-fabricated, non-combustible, eco-friendly and customizable home packages to help rebuild homes in Paradise and other areas of California where replacement homes due to natural disasters still must be built. — The Mercury News
The city of Chico was in the crosshairs of the 2018 Camp Fire, which destroyed over 18,000 homes in and around Butte County over a 17-day span. This week, an entire town in Plumas County was razed by the Dixie Fire. Steelmaster has more on Vern Sneed's Q Cabin Kit here.
Related Reading: UCLA's Department of Architecture and Urban Design has been at the forefront of fire-related building resiliency since launching the FireCity and FireLAnd initiatives last year. Read our recent interview with Associate Adjunct Professor Jeffrey Inaba and Professor Hitoshi Abe here.
9 Comments
Quonset huts >>> Shipping containers
the still melt in the middle of a fire though. no ignition, just slowly dripping.
That'd have to be a crazy hot fire.
metal building + fire = oven
Oven is right, I stand corrected though, the steel doesn't melt, just everything else around it - and I don't think the left over steel is very safe. https://www.steelmasterusa.com/quonset-huts/disaster-resistant-buildings/fire-resistant/
Honestly, it seems very reasonable by Wildland urban interface standards. The point of WUI isn't really to fireproof stuff, but to reduce the likelihood of ignition. You're really supposed to evacuate if there is a fire, the goal would mostly be that your hut would be there when you get back, and that no one would have to try to put it out from an errant ember.
Miles - the fire in this case is outside the building.
This makes me sad that I’ve had to shelf my Quonset home dream. It may come back into my life at some point, but for the moment I’m living in a bungalow and don’t have resources to build my dream Q-hut.
Where I'm from in MN those deep corrugated roofs are only used in barns . . .
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