KB Home unveils 'wildfire-resistant' community
KB Home has unveiled what it's calling the nation’s first new-home community that meets the home- and neighborhood-level wildfire resilience standards developed by the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS). Using fire-resistant building materials, methods and features based on over a decade of IBHS wildfire research, KB Home’s Dixon Trail community in Escondido, California, is designed to IBHS’s highest level of protection against direct flame contact, radiant heat and embers, all of which help to reduce the likelihood of wildfire spread.
The Dixon Trail community will have 64 homes upon completion. According to KB Home, Dixon Trail is the first applied use of the researched-based, community-level mitigation strategies of structure separation, fire pathway reduction and wildfire-resilient building materials under IBHS’s new Wildfire Prepared Neighborhood standard.
Dixon Trail has incorporated research-backed mitigation actions into the design of its homesites, including the installation of Class A fire-rated roofs, noncombustible gutters, upgraded windows and doors, and ember- and flame-resistant vents, as well as the creation of a 5-foot noncombustible buffer around structures. At the neighborhood level, wildfire risk is reduced by separating almost all structures by more than 10 feet and decreasing potential fuels through the use of fire-resistant materials like all-metal fence systems.
"With fire becoming an increasingly common threat in the West, it's crucial to reconsider how we construct communities in fire-prone regions," said IBHS CEO Roy Wright. "KB Home is at the forefront, implementing our research-driven wildfire mitigation strategies for both the parcel and neighborhood levels at Dixon Trail."
Learn more about KB Home’s sustainability initiatives here.
