In wildfire-prone parts of California, developers are beginning to build the nation’s first neighborhoods designed specifically to survive major fires, applying cutting-edge research at a community scale rather than just house by house. One of the earliest examples, a subdivision called Stone Canyon near Sacramento, exceeds state building requirements with features like ember-resistant vents, enclosed eaves, tempered glass windows, noncombustible roofs and gutters, and at least 10 feet of space between homes to slow the spread of flames. The project follows new “Wildfire Prepared Neighborhood” standards developed by the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety, which are based on laboratory wildfire simulations that test how structures perform under extreme heat, wind, and ember exposure.

The national builder KB Home adopted the standards after witnessing side-by-side tests showing that homes built to older codes burned quickly while those designed to the new guidelines remained intact. The company has since incorporated the approach into developments in Escondido and near Sacramento, finding that the added protections did not significantly increase costs and in some cases reduced them. Beyond improving safety for new homeowners, the neighborhood-level design helps protect nearby older subdivisions and improves the chances that firefighters can contain a blaze before it spreads. While no home can be completely fireproof, researchers say even modest reductions in losses could dramatically limit how wildfires move through communities, offering a promising new model for building in high-risk areas.

In California, developers are building the country’s first wildfire resilient neighborhoods