Orange County Grand Jury
• 2002-2003
• Agency Response
Response to:
Wood Roofs Are Dangerous 02/10/03, 90K
City of Fountain Valley*
⚠️ Aviso de traducción: Este contenido ha sido traducido automáticamente. El texto original en inglés es la versión oficial. La traducción puede contener errores.
⚠️ Este contenido ha sido traducido automáticamente. El texto original en inglés es la versión oficial. La traducción puede contener errores.
Findings and Recommendations 4 findings
F1
There is a lack of uniformity in local building codes involving roofs for identical environmental conditions within Orange County. Response: Agree. This is true. The environmental conditions are consistent throughout the County of Orange. However, the geographic conditions differ from one city to others, somewhat, whereas the topographic conditions differ considerably. The perceived "lack of uniformity" may have a very logical basis as to allowing each locale to determine the level of mitigation of hazards necessary to provide for the degree of safety that is "actually equal" to the other areas of the County as provided within the California Building Code Title 24 and that the citizens of the locale desire. The testing and qualification standards of wood shakes and shingles are below the
Related Recommendations (1)
R1
Each responding jurisdictional agency should consider amending the building code to require the most fire retardant class of roof covering (Class A) for new construction of all residential structures (Group R) in all fire zones. (Findings 1 through 4) This recommendation will not be implemented. Response: The City Council has reviewed and considered the above recommendation but intends to continue, as we have, to support and participate in the amendment and adoption process of the California State Building Code as provided in the Health and Safety Code of the State of California in conjunction with the California Building Codes Commission. We do not believe that local conditions in Fountain Valley justify a deviation from that code.
F2
environmental conditions of Orange County. Disagree. Response: This finding seems to be, to some extent, inconsistent with the opinion of the majority of experts throughout the State of California including the State Fire Marshal. The fire retardant pressure treatment of wood used in, up to, a class "A" roof system has, to the best of our knowledge, proved to be on track with the State Fire Marshal's requirements. The cities' and county's roofing codes do not adequately take into account the climate,
Related Recommendations (1)
R2
Each responding jurisdictional agency should consider amending the building code to require the most fire retardant class of roof covering (Class A) for re-roofing of all residential structures (Group R) in all fire zones, when more than 50 percent of the roof is replaced within one year. (Findings 1 through 4) This recommendation will not be implemented. Response: In keeping with the response to the Honorable Grand Juries recommendation number one above, after due consideration, the City Council Intends to continue working within the system of developing building codes that our society is willing to accept, afford and to live with. We do not believe the facts are present to deviate from that Standard.
F3
particularly the Santa Ana winds, and topographical conditions unique to Orange County. Response: Partially disagree. The City of Fountain Valley lacks the knowledge to make judgments about other cities so will limit its comments to this jurisdiction. While this may be the case with some specific cities we believe that the City of Fountain Valley has adequately considered these conditions as they relate to this area of the county and given that our homes are not adjacent to natural habitant we believe our roof standards are appropriate. Fire conflagrations stress finite fire fighting resources especially during the period of
No recommendations for this finding
F4
Santa Ana winds. Response: Agree. The record of the past decades, in our jurisdiction, does not support this finding as it relates to the City of Fountain Valley. However, we recognize that in some of the areas of very different topography within California that may include heavy brush and vegetation has caused this referenced demand on available resources for adjoining jurisdictions with mutual aid agreements.
No recommendations for this finding
* This report's PDF did not contain easily extractable text and required Optical Character Recognition (OCR) for analysis. There may be minor errors in the extracted findings and recommendations due to OCR limitations with scanned documents.