Orange County Grand Jury
• 2002-2003
• Agency Response
Response to:
Wood Roofs Are Dangerous 02/10/03, 90K
City of Stanton Responses to Findings and Subject:*
⚠️ Translation Notice: This content has been automatically translated. The original English text is the official version. Translation may contain errors.
⚠️ 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
Each 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) Current City of Stanton building regulations permit the use of wood shake or shingle roofing materials (either Class A or B) for new construction in all residential structures (Group R), provided they are pressure tested and approved for fire-retardant use by the City building official. However, current practices do not permit the installation of any wood roofs, with the exception of minor repair work (ten percent or less of total roof area). Proposed amendments to City building regulations would prohibit use of all wood roofing materials, except for minor repair work.
Related Recommendations (1)
R1
Each 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) Current City of Stanton building regulations permit the use of wood shake or shingle roofing materials (either Class A or B) for new construction in all residential structures (Group R), provided they are pressure tested and approved for fire-retardant use by the City building official. However, current practices do not permit the installation of any wood roofs, with the exception of minor repair work (ten percent or less of total roof area). Proposed amendments to City building regulations would prohibit use of all wood roofing materials, except for minor repair work.
F2
The testing and qualification standards of wood shakes and shingles are below the environmental conditions of Orange County. The City of Stanton concurs with this finding.
Related Recommendations (1)
R2
Each 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)
F3
The cities' and county's roofing codes do not adequately take into account the climate, particularly the Santa Ana winds, and topographical conditions unique to Orange County. The City of Stanton concurs with this finding.
No recommendations for this finding
F4
Fire conflagrations stress finite fire fighting resources especially during the period of Santa Ana winds. The City of Stanton concurs with this finding.
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.