My husband Carlos and I knew that when we moved, the location was in fire country.
These high hills burn every 10 years or so.
And yet, Carlos and I absolutely enjoy living here. After all, every place has its natural disasters. This space is just more prone to fires. That’s why one of the first things Carlos and I did is have metal roofing put in on our new house. We knew when we purchased the lake house that the roof needed to be fixed up. That did not bother us at all because we had already determined that whatever roof the lake house came with was going to be ripped off & have metal roofing installed instead. This is because metal roofing is much more flame 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, but ceramic is a lot safer than tar when it comes to flames going around. But, ceramic roofs simply do not last as long as metal roofs do, especially with the storms the people I was with and I 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 guess the metal roof will end up paying for itself. We also got a very strong sprinkler system set up; both inside of our lake house & in the yard outdoors. I assume that this lake house can withstand whatever fires and mother nature wants to toss at us.