Letter from Chip Northrup

Building Codes Important

In the midst of the tragedy that is LA, some news outlets have reported on a phenomenon that otherwise goes unnoticed: Not all houses burned in neighborhoods that otherwise were wiped out.
The survivors had been built with tile roofs, stucco or stone walls and metal-clad doors, and windows with operable metal shutters. You know, like those Spaniards.

We lived in La Canada-Flintridge once and our hillside house was roofed with very attractive wooden shingles. It was an LA conflagration waiting to get on the news. When we remodeled our cottage in Cooperstown, the town ordinance forbade the use of fire-retardant cladding for “historical correctness.”

Building codes for fire and flood should stay ahead of the times. Or at least ahead of the insurance companies.

Chip Northrup
Cooperstown