[New Tang Dynasty Beijing time, August 23, 2023]The large-scale outbreak in Hawaii, USA, almost reduced Lahaina, an important tourist town in Maui, to ashes, but a century-old wooden red-roof house and its lawn remained unscathed, triggering It was hotly debated on the Internet, and it was called the “House of Miracles”.
The massive wildfire that broke out on Maui on August 8 is the worst disaster in the history of the state of Hawaii. According to Maui County officials, as of August 21 local time, the fire has killed at least 115 people and more than 800 people are still missing.
A large number of buildings in the well-known tourist town of Lahaina (Lahaina) on Maui were almost destroyed. However, an aerial photo recently became popular on the Internet.
A wooden house with a red roof and white exterior walls stands unscathed among the ruins, which is particularly eye-catching. It is in sharp contrast to the surrounding streets and houses that have been burned to scorched earth by the fire. (Click to view related pictures）
The owner, Mrs. Dora Atwater Millikin, said in an interview that she and her husband were visiting relatives in Massachusetts when the fire broke out. It looks like a composite image.
Millikin said the home was built in 1925 and is 100 percent wood construction, and she and her husband worked with the county on a historic preservation plan after buying the property in 2021, nearly two years after it began. renovation works.
The house was recently renovated, she said. In order to respect this ancient building, it has not been greatly remodeled, and no fire protection treatment has been carried out. Just replaced the original asphalt roof with thick sheet metal and filled the ground around the house with stones all the way to the roof drip line and removed all the weeds, plants around the house. And this is just to prevent termite invasion, not for fire prevention.
While the home renovations were not intended to be fireproof, they accidentally saved the log home from the wildfire.
She said many flaming wood chips were flying in the wind when the fire broke out, and those wood chips could catch fire if they fell on the asphalt roof, or fell from the roof and set the trees around the house on fire.
Susie Kocher, a forestry consultant with the University of California Cooperative Extension, told the Los Angeles Times that while the homeowner’s repairs were aimed at preventing termites, not fire protection, it was almost exactly in line with the guidance given by experts.
Koch said the bushes are very flammable, and if the bushes caught fire next to the house, the height of the heat would burst through the windows and allow the fire to burn into the house. In addition, the house faces the sea on one side, the road on the other side, and an open space on the other side, and it is a certain distance from the surrounding houses, which may have escaped the fire.
(Comprehensive report by reporter Ji Weizhen/Editor in charge: Cheng Yiren)
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2023-08-24 01:53:20
