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Rebuilding With Steel Framing After Oregon Wildfires

After 2,600 homes and business were destroyed by wildfires, city officials in Southern Oregon look to rebuild with non-combustible materials.

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Architect Mike Roddy believes communities where wood-dominant buildings have burned to the ground should explore rebuilding with fire-resistant materials. Specifically, non-combustible steel framing.

According to the Mail Tribune, Roddy has built 700 steel framed homes. He believes city officials should consider rebuilding with fire-resistant materials after wildfires devastated parts of Southern Oregon.

Rebuilding With Steel Framing

The Almeda fire destroyed more than 2,600 homes and businesses, including whole subdivisions and trailer parks in Talent and Phoenix.

Chris Chambers, Ashland Fire and Rescue, believes that fire-resistant building codes are needed for future construction. Chambers said it’s impossible for firefighters to stop blazes like the Almeda fire because of the dry conditions and the way it was propelled by 40-mile-per-hour winds.

“This is our new reality and it changes everything,” said Dominick DellaSala, Chief Scientist at Wild-Heritage. “We’ve got to do things differently about how we design communities, how we build homes, where we build homes, because this isn’t going away.”

DellaSala is working with contractors to design homes made with fire-resistant materials like concrete and steel, instead of wood.

It might sound expensive, Roddy says, but depending on markets, steel is equal or a bit higher in price than wood. It’s built with screws, not nails, doesn’t produce gases like wood and is more dimensionally stable. Steel studs are built on two-foot centers, farther apart than wood, and instead of using plywood for external sheeting, he recommends fiber-cement.

Bone Structure House

The Booster’s new home has a metal roof and was made “impregnable” by using pre-fabricated steel framing wrapped in non-combustible insulation from Canada-based home building company BONE Structure.

5 Reasons to Use Steel Framing

Throughout the U.S., builders are turning to cold-formed steel (CFS) framing to rebuild homes and non-residential structures lost to wildfires. Steel is non-combustible, it cannot burn because it contains no elements that can serve as fuel. It provides no means for a fire to start, and it does not contribute to fire growth or fire spread.

A recent BuildSteel article, Don’t Get Burned: Steel for Fire Safety and Insurance Savings, highlights 5 reasons to use CFS:

  1. Steel is non-combustible
  2. Steel maintains its non-combustibility
  3. Steel-framed buildings lower the fire risk to workers and occupants
  4. Steel-framed buildings lower the impact on municipal fire services
  5. Steel-framed buildings tend to cost less to insure

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