With Fires Raging, KB Home Unveils ‘Wildfire Resistant’ Development

The big builder has opened a new community in California that it says meets Insurance Institute for Business & Home safety standards.

The recent wildfires that have hit parts of the country – especially California – are prompting home builders to develop structures that offer the most fire-resistant construction possible. KB Home is taking up the cause with its new Dixon Trail community in Escondido, CA, a 64-home development that it says is designed to meet the IBHS’s highest level of protection against flame contact, radiant heat and embers. KB says this new construction is based on a decade of IBHS wildfire research.

“With fire becoming an increasingly common threat in the West, it’s crucial to reconsider how we construct communities in fire-prone regions,” IBHS CEO Roy Wright said in comments about the development. “KB Home is at the forefront, implementing our research-driven wildfire mitigation strategies for both the parcel and neighborhood levels at Dixon Trail.”

Among the fire-resistant design features of the development are: the installation of Class A fire-rated roofs, noncombustible gutters, upgraded windows and doors, ember and flame-resistant vents, and five-foot noncombustible buffers around structures. IBHS said that the wildfire risk is further reduced by separating almost all structures by more than 10 feet and using fire-resistant materials like all-metal fence systems.

Homes in Dixon Hills, which is outside of San Diego, start at about $1 million and were opened for viewing this past October.

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