To the editor: The neighborhoods in Los Angeles that noticed large fires endured disaster for a easy motive: They had been constructed with lumber.
Few nations in the remainder of the developed world construct properties with wooden. As a substitute, they use concrete blocks or masonry, which don’t catch hearth.
The USA ranks low in hearth security worldwide. Deaths are widespread yearly. When neighborhoods like those within the Los Angeles space burn down, few discover that flammable lumber in building is the principle supply of flames — and of deaths.
Publish-fire images present wholesome timber, whereas lumber is clearly the supply of the flames. Why are these information ignored?
I personal properties on different continents. The specs name for concrete block or mild gauge metal framing. Many nations hardly ever use lumber — and it’s due to hearth hazard, not as a result of they don’t have sufficient timber.
Mike Roddy, Alameda, Calif.
