We knew when we moved into this area that it’s fire country.
These beautiful hills burn every decade or so.
And yet, we really love living here. After all, every place has its natural disasters. This area is just more prone to wildfires. That’s why one of the first things we did is have metal roofing installed on our new house. We knew when we bought the house that the roof needed to be replaced. That didn’t bother us at all because we had already determined that we were going to have whatever roof the house came with ripped off and have metal roofing installed instead. This is because metal roofing is much more fire retardant then more traditional, tar-based, roofs. The tar-based roofs are not safe in this part of the country. Some of the older houses have ceramic roofs. Ceramic is a lot safer than tar when it comes to sparks flying around. However, ceramic roofs simply don’t last as long as metal roofs do. Especially with the wind we get in these mountain passes. Metal roofs are pretty expensive, but not much more expensive than ceramic roofs. Besides, if there is a fire in this area, I think the metal roof will end up paying for itself. We also got a really strong sprinkler system installed; both inside of our house and in the yard outside. I feel that this house can withstand whatever Mother Nature throws at it now. I have to add though, that the metal roof looks amazing as well. People are always assuming we paid a lot more for it than we did it. I let them assume that.