Letters to the Editor: Wood burns, so why do we still build homes out of it?

To the editor: With the destruction of Lahaina by fire, it is so sad to see that Americans are still building and rebuilding with wood. We do not seem to have learned the simple fact that wood burns. (“A ‘perfect storm’ set Hawaii ablaze. Experts say it could happen almost anywhere,” Aug. 20)

I built a house more than 20 years ago that did not use any wood in the structure. The Times published a feature on the home after it was finished. Building a home out of something that does not burn isn’t that hard.

We need to change our building codes, which protect Californians from earthquakes quite well and should also start protecting us from fires. There are several means of building without wood, and much of the rest of the world is already building non-combustible houses.

Russell Johnson, Los Angeles

The writer is an architect.

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To the editor: When you have high winds, dry conditions and power lines, you are more likely to have a fire. It’s very simple.

Why are there often wildfires in high-wind conditions? Power lines get blown down and cause sparks in dry brush. That starts a fire.

The fire that destroyed the Sierra Nevada foothill town of Paradise in 2018 was started by downed transmission lines. There’s evidence that downed power lines also sparked the Lahaina fire.

It’s time that we update our power grid to manage this, either by burying power lines in forested or dry brush areas, or by building sensor networks to monitor winds and shut down or reroute power to avoid these catastrophes.

I know it isn’t easy, and maybe the cost-benefit ratio isn’t favorable to the power companies’ bottom lines, but it is something the state can help with.

Ed Miller, Sierra Madre

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To the editor: This piece illustrates what everyone should be doing — connecting the dots and realizing the peril we are in. This summer has been a collection of catastrophic climate events.

Currently, wildfires in the Pacific Northwest are causing havoc. A major heat dome has settled over the Midwest. An extremely rare tropical storm just hit Southern California. Meteorologists are noting tropical storm activity in the Atlantic Ocean.

It is time to seriously consider the most salient cause of our climate crisis — fossil fuels. Their combustion packs our atmosphere with extra carbon dioxide. Unprecedented disasters such as the fire on Maui are the result.

Years ago, as a science teacher I taught basic climate science. I never expected to witness this level of climate destruction in my lifetime. We desperately need to ditch fossil fuels now.

Sally Courtright, Albany, N.Y.