The truth about the house that survived the wildfire in Hawaii.

In the US , a photo of a red-roofed house with a white facade, seemingly undamaged amidst the rubble after last week's wildfire in the town of Lahaina, has gone viral on social media.

The white house remained intact after the fire. Photo: LA Times — The white house remained intact after the fire. Photo: *LA Times*

The house on Front Street wasn't the only property to survive the fire. The entire borough remained unaffected as the flames swept across Maui. But the image of the intact house amidst the devastation was so striking that some suspected it was a digital image, according to the Los Angeles Times .

However, the homeowners, Dora Atwater Millikin and her husband, confirmed that the situation was true. They were visiting family in Massachusetts when the fire broke out and had recently renovated the house, but not with the intention of fire-resistant reinforcement. The 100-year-old house had once been the residence of a bookkeeper for employees of Pioneer Mill Co., a sugarcane plantation operating in Lahaina since the mid-19th century. The homeowners were trying to restore some of the building's original architecture.

With permission from the county authorities, the Millikin couple replaced the asphalt roof with a metal one. Originally, the house's roof was constructed of thin, corrugated wooden or tin sheets. The homeowners also laid stone from the ground to the gutter of the roof, which protruded 90-100 cm from the walls. The couple removed all tree foliage that touched the house, not to reduce the risk of fire, but out of concern that termites could spread throughout the wooden frame. Their only decision to cope with natural disasters was to install storm rafters.

These changes appear to have had an unintended effect, making the house more fire-resistant. "When a fire breaks out, there are pieces of wood 15-30 cm long floating in the air with the wind and hitting people's roofs. If the roof were made of asphalt, it would catch fire. If not, the pieces of wood would fall off the roof and then ignite the surrounding plants and flowers," Millikin said.

The roof is the primary factor contributing to a house's flammability because it acts as a large buffer for the flames, according to Susie Kocher, a forestry advisor in the University of California's Cooperative Extension program. The next factor is the surrounding environment. Experts advise homeowners to clear flammable vegetation within a 1.5-meter radius and replace it with hard materials like paving stones or gravel, similar to what the Millikin couple did. "If vegetation and bushes, especially flammable ones, are right next to the house and catch fire, the heat can shatter windows and the flames will enter the house through that route," Kocher explained.

Millikin's house could also benefit from being away from other buildings in the neighborhood, as it's surrounded on three sides by the sea, a road, and an open, park-like space. "One of the biggest sources of fuel is the neighboring houses. So when one house catches fire, if there's another house nearby, the fire can spread," Kocher explained.

The risk is highest when the burning house is 10 meters or less away, according to Stephen Quarles, honorary advisor to the Cooperative Extension program. Vulnerable areas include the sides of the house, windows, floors, and attics.

When wildfires spread through neighborhoods, it's quite common for some homes to survive while others burn to the ground, as wind blows the flames to vulnerable points in the structure or surrounding trees. Additionally, some homes are more fire-resistant than others. Many speculated that Millikin's home escaped destruction thanks to its automatic sprinkler system. While their home was equipped, many similar homes in the area were still destroyed. When the fire broke out, the power was off and the fire suppression system was ineffective.

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