San Diego Fires Illustrate Some New Technologies in Homebuilding

Exclusive homes emerge unscathed as fire-protection concept is tested -- Officials with the Rancho Santa Fe Fire Protection District credit the lack of property damage to a defensive program called “shelter in place.” It is a wildfire protection plan that imposes construction and landscaping standards intended to be so stringent – including mandatory interior fire sprinklers and broad swaths of protective landscaping – that homeowners can remain sheltered in their houses if they cannot evacuate. Lori Weisberg, Roger Showley and Emmet Pierce in the San Diego Union-Trib -- 10/25/07