Residents of fire-stricken areas are finding a surprising material to protect their homes from disasters in the future — dirt.
The BBC reported on the rise of earthen homes in the U.S. as a remedy to wildfires. The movement is led by the efforts of homebuilding startups like Colorado Earth and homeowners like Melanie Glover.
Glover's revelation came when she returned to her garden after a 2021 fire. Amid the rubble, she was struck by one thing.
"I said to myself, dirt doesn't burn," she related to the BBC.
Her next thought was that she and her husband "should build a house of dirt." When she saw a billboard for Colorado Earth, it was game on.
Glover's intuition about dirt's fireproof qualities is backed by preliminary lab studies from Michele Barbato, co-director of the Climate Adaptation Research Center at UC-Davis.
Barbato put compressed earth blocks through a series of trials involving a furnace and a 3,452-degree Fahrenheit blowtorch, per the BBC. The earth blocks not only survived the fire but hardened into a red clay with enhanced water resistance in wet climates.
Real-life anecdotes include an earthen home surviving a 2008 fire in Littlerock, California, and an old earthen church surviving a New Mexico fire in 2016.
Earthen homes have a rich, global history. In America, adobe homes in Southwestern states, like Colorado and Mexico, were built by indigenous communities using mud brick.
Quentin Wilson, a board member of nonprofit Adobe in Action, told the BBC that adobe houses are equal to the task.
"These are pretty much absolutely fireproof, flameproof materials," Wilson declared.
As extreme weather events are on the rise, wildfires are of grave concern in the U.S. The total number of acres burned has already nearly tripled in 2024 from 2023's final tally, per the National Interagency Fire Center.
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Record global temperatures undoubtedly play a huge role, as do major droughts that prime areas for wildfires.
Amid that landscape, it's unsurprising that homeowners would look for protection.
One holdup for households considering dirt-based materials is familiarity with earthen structures. Once homeowners gain familiarity, "it's relatively easy to convince the public this is a great solution," Barbato asserted to the BBC.
Cost is a challenge, as contractors want more oversight and guidance. Glover told the BBC she was able to keep the cost of her home's build at around 12% more than a conventional build, but she served as her own general contractor.
Another frustrating situation is insurance companies insisting on higher rates in spite of earthen homes' resilience.
Ultimately, standardization of the best practices for earthen home building, mass production of the earth blocks, and increased familiarity by the construction industry and insurers could make widespread earthen homes a reality.
"We can bring the cost of an earthen home lower than the cost of a wooden home," Barbato claimed to the BBC.
Colorado Earth founder Lisa Morey touted the feeling of protection from the elements that homeowners feel.
"My clients who live in these homes, they say that there could be an Armageddon going on outside and they wouldn't know," Morey said, per the BBC.
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