Fires, palapas and tiki bars

Mrs. No was watching the tube when the anchor said that the reason for a house that burnt down in Rancho Santa Fe was because embers landed on the thatch of either the palapa or a tiki bar in the backyard. :(

I saw an ad in TikiMag for an aluminium thatch company. Hmmm? It looked pretty good. Especially now!
When/if I move near a canyon/hillside area faux thatch will be in place!

They sell flame-retardant sprayed palapas, but this leads me to wonder how good the flame retardant actually is. I'm getting ready to put a palapa on my porch and this worries me a bit, what with the tiki torches and all. I have to put an architectural request in with the HOA and I'm wondering if they're going to approve it after this being an issue during the fire.

Come on... Isn't she Dr No first and Mrs. No second? I mean, she had to study for decades to become Dr No. She just had to stop saying No to become Mrs. No.

As you know Erik I wanted real thatch for the Freaky Boutiki's awning but was then so afraid of fire I looked into artificial fireproof thatch. I seem to recall finding some that was unbelievably expensive. Found this little article containing some ways to retard ignition of natural thatch.

http://thatchco.com/thatchpg/fireprf.htm

I would speculate to say that during a firestorm, nothing is fire retardent. Eventually, it will all burn. The fire proofed thatch would only work out if conditions were normal and someone flicked a cigerette on top of it, that it isn't supposed to ignite under those types of circumstances. Even fireworks, but the hot constant embers in the air, the low humidity and the Santa Ana winds, I don't think the fire retardent is meant to ward off such a fire enviroment. I could be wrong, but I wouldn't count on chemically fireproofed thatch in a firestorm.

[ Edited by: Tom Slick 2007-11-08 08:51 ]