Session · Resilience · Everyone

Fire-Wise Property Hardening: Life Safety, Insurance, and Passive House Building

January 20, 2026 · Chapter · PHCA (Passive House California)

A Certified Wildfire Mitigation Specialist on hardening buildings and communities against wildfire: ignition pathways, fire-weather alerts, the health and economic toll of urban conflagration smoke, defensible space, ember-resistant detailing, and where Passive House fits.

Key points

• Actions individuals and communities can take to reduce harm, including site design, defensible space, and ignition-resistant materials.
• How urban conflagration smoke affects health, building durability, and insurance risk, and building strategies to reduce exposure.
• How certified Passive House buildings support wildfire resilience: airtightness, multi-pane windows, filtered ventilation, and high-performance assemblies.
• Reducing ember intrusion and heat exposure through vegetation management, zoning, and hardscape transitions.

Learning objectives

• Identify actions individuals and communities can take to reduce harm to themselves, their homes, and surrounding neighborhoods, including site design, defensible space creation, and ignition-resistant material choices.
• Explain how Urban Conflagration Smoke impacts human health, building durability, and insurance risk, and describe building-level strategies for reducing exposure and damage.
• Describe how certified Passive House buildings integrate with wildfire-resilience, including airtightness, multi-paned windows, filtered ventilation, and high-performance assemblies.
• Recognize strategies for reducing ember intrusion and heat exposure through vegetation management, zoning, and hardscape transitions.
• Understand key insurance, code, and policy frameworks related to wildfire risk, and how design professionals can help clients meet emerging requirements while improving long-term resilience and building performance.

Topics: Wildfire and smoke