Superior marshall fire building codes fire resistant
Superior's Town Trustees Monday night passed an ordinance supporting more stringent building codes in the hard hit Sagamore neighborhood when it comes to fire resistant building, but created an opt out for people who owned homes at the time of the Marshall Fire.
The 5-1 vote came after a meeting that included widely varying cost estimates from builders who have been contracted to build homes in the neighborhood where every home was destroyed as the fire arrived in Superior. Sagamore suffered from the proximity of the homes close together as well as the close open space where the fire pushed by 100 mile an hour winds leaped from the Marshall area a few miles to the west.
"We have an opportunity to build more fire resistant right now and I think it would be foolish and short sighted not to take that opportunity," said Sagamore homeowner Dan Cole, who supported the stronger codes.
"This is all a huge cost we cannot bear," said homeowner Rob Lousberg.
Outside the small, cleared plot where the home he owned stood, Arturo Barrios thought about the idea of building back more fire resistant.
"Basically every single house, you really put your hand out, you were able to touch the other house. There was maybe about five feet, six feet in between houses."
He said he was not likely to spend extra money on more fire resistant construction, like tempered glass windows on outside walls between homes, even at the basement level.
"I don't think it made that much difference because once a house has basically exploded, it didn't really make any difference if it was six feet or twenty feet. It was going to get the other one."
Barrios is already way behind in the cost of rebuilding. His mortgage before the fire was a little over $200,000. Now it will be about $600,000. He was underinsured and renting the home. There has been less assistance for landlords.
"My tenants received more help than I did. But I'm the one who got stuck with the bill."
Representatives for two different builders contracted to rebuild homes in the neighborhood spoke during the Monday night meeting. A construction manager for Homebound Tyle Khafeld put the price of meeting more stringent fire resistant building at close to $30,000. Steve Knoll of Remington Homes put the cost at about $5500, but that was before considering tempered glass windows at the basement level between homes that he wasn't sure their current supplier offered.
"We'd have to hear from our buyers if that was something that they wanted," he told the trustees.
The board voted late to approve the idea of an opt out after hearing objections and considering there were already five permits in process that would likely have to be grandfathered in if the regulations were changed. Many homes will have significant increases in fire protection due to changes in place in construction practices since the 90s when most of the neighborhood went up. Different roofing, siding and decking material are expected to have some benefits.
Barrios figured the additional costs are just too much, unsure of the cost benefit with any fire like the monstrous Marshall Fire.
"So maybe with the new materials it's going to be little bit better, but in a situation like this that happened six or seven months ago, I don't think it's going to make any difference."
