Santa Clarita family turns to fireproofing technique after losing home in 2019 Tick Fire​on February 4, 2025 at 2:31 am

SANTA CLARITA, Calif. (KABC) — For families impacted by wildfires, the idea of rebuilding their home can be daunting. Not only is there confusion about how to start, but there’s the natural fear that another fire could burn down their home again.

Ryan and Ann Palos know what it’s like to recover from a wildfire.

Their home in Santa Clarita was destroyed by the Tick Fire in 2019, and the recent firestorm across Southern California brought back horrible memories.

Ryan said he still remembers his daughters’ voices telling him to leave their home when the fire broke out, but he wanted to make sure his neighbors made it out safely.

“You just remember the moments before you leave and the moments when you realize you don’t have anything left,” Ann said.

We met the Palos family in 2021 as they began to rebuild using what’s called ICF, or Insulating Concrete Forms – a home designed and permitted as non-combustible and built using only foam, concrete and rebar.

They hope their home can serve as a model to the thousands of people about to undertake a similar journey.

“You have to build smarter nowadays. We’re in an area where every other week there’s a fire…and there are certain times a year in Santa Clarita where we have fires… Everybody just knows, we have fires. You have to build smarter. We have to push for people to build smarter,” Ann added.

ICF builds are common, but the Palos family used PHNX Development and their unique longspan system to eliminate the need for any wood in the structure.

“With us, it takes one day to frame a roof and one day to roof it. And our roof has no penetrations, we have no roof vents, so the only penetrations we’re going to have are plumbing vents, and we keep those to a minimum,” said Laurie Fisher, the company’s founder.

As people plan to rebuild after the destructive Los Angeles wildfires, we’ve received a lot of questions about how to find the right contractor.

Ryan said their home now has so much flexibility.

“Since there’s no load-bearing walls here in the house, we can reconfigure the rooms in the future, whichever way we want to,” he added.

Their home is not made with any wood. Even the roof is non-combustible material.

“It’s so hard to get wood out of residential construction and it’s mainly the roof sheathing – the plywood sheathing in the roof. That’s the toughest part and that’s what our patent-pending longspan system does, is it eliminates the need for sheathing,” Fisher said.

In spite of the reduced fire risk to the home, it was still a challenge to get fire insurance.

The family was rejected by several companies, but eventually, executives from Mercury Insurance visited the home and not only offered coverage, but at a lower rate than prior to the fire.

“When they toured it, they kind of had a surprised look… ‘Oh, it’s like a traditional house’,” said Ryan. “You wouldn’t know this type of construction was possible but when they saw it, it opened their eyes.”

Mercury now has an alliance with PHNX Development to make homes in high fire-risk areas insurable, and said in a statement:

“We want to continue to grow our homeowners book in California, but we also want to help the industry rethink the way we approach catastrophe-prone areas so we can all insure more homes,” said President and Chief Operating Officer Victor Joseph.

“I think, for me, it’s just peace of mind. Wanting to make sure that our family is in a safer position should something come back next time,” Ann said.

If ICF is of interest to you, remember to use someone familiar with the type of construction and tour previous builds they’ve had.

And as with the thousands of new homes coming over the next decade, do your homework when hiring someone to rebuild.