What code upgrade?

It's called "ordinance or law coverage".

 

What code upgrade?

Building codes and electric codes change over the years and upgrades are commonly needed if drywall is opened during a rebuild. In the last 40 years, there have been a lot of changes to
- electric codes (gfic and arc fault interrupters, grounding, subcircuits, ...
- plumbing codes for venting, materials allowed,
- Fireplaces (flue liners, non-combustible materials near firebox,
- Stairs (step height), railings,

Often, the insurance company will let you sacrifice quality of one repair to move money to a code upgrade but not always. For example, you can take the value of the damaged hardwood floor and replace with cheaper carpet and use the extra money to pay for code upgrades. Or cost of plaster walls in the claim and use drywall for the rebuild and use the extra money for code.

It doesn't always work out so well so you are better off with adding the $20/year rider to the policy.

 

California is having an epidemic of wild fires and some people are suspicious of how these fires are getting started.

The media claims the increase in fires is the resultant of global warming and climate change, but the increase in temperature is not sufficient to ignite any of the materials that are burning. For example, paper ignites at about 450 Degrees (F) which is much hotter than any ambient temperature, so there must be some external source of heat starting these fires.

Pardon me if I sound like a so called "conspiracy theorist", but someone must be setting these fires.

 

Heat does dry out the fuel making it easy for wildfires to spread rapidly.

From memory, there were some huge wildfires that were later found the be intentionally started by people. A year or two back sparking power lines maintained by PG&E caused a very large fire.

Then there are the natural causes such as lightning and...?

 

California is having an epidemic of wild fires and some people are suspicious of how these fires are getting started.

The media claims the increase in fires is the resultant of global warming and climate change, but the increase in temperature is not sufficient to ignite any of the materials that are burning. For example, paper ignites at about 450 Degrees (F) which is much hotter than any ambient temperature, so there must be some external source of heat starting these fires.

Pardon me if I sound like a so called "conspiracy theorist", but someone must be setting these fires.

Here in Utah it's about 50/50 lightning and man made stupid Sh*&T, sparks from gunfire, campfires to large etc. It's a tinder box out there and doesn't take a lot for it to ignite.

kv

Edit: With the smoke in the air, it's a soup bowl in Utah County, Mountains on all sides is like it was in California while training in Burbank, Sears sent me 10 times for certifications and every time the air was thick with pollution, here it seems much worse. We are in the top 10 of the worse air in the nation and I can't wait to leave.

 

https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/weapons/a22674251/air-force-bomb-forest-fires/

 

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/extreme-fire-behaviour-shovel-lake-1.4788916

The sky over Prince George was still dark orange — and outright black in some places — as smoke and ash from the nearby Shovel Lake wildfire floated over the B.C. city. after 9 a.m. on Friday morning. Evacuees from around the region were lined up outside the emergency reception centre.(Andrew Kurjata/CBC)

 

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/extreme-fire-behaviour-shovel-lake-1.4788916

The sky over Prince George was still dark orange — and outright black in some places — as smoke and ash from the nearby Shovel Lake wildfire floated over the B.C. city. after 9 a.m. on Friday morning. Evacuees from around the region were lined up outside the emergency reception centre.(Andrew Kurjata/CBC)

BC is having to declare a state of emergency second year in a row. Currently there are over 500 fires burning and the weather has not been cooperating. I might be in the only corner of the province where it is actually possible to breathe normally. The mismanagement of dead pine and weather conditions have hit hard.

 

Temps should fall soon and hopefully bring in some fresh air.

https://www.wweek.com/news/2018/08/...-air-quality-ranks-among-the-worst-worldwide/

https://airnow.gov/state/OR/index.cfm

 

Yes, it is cooling on the coast. The largest fires are in the interior and it will still take time to get a handle on those, but it looks like it should not get any worse.

The interesting reprecussion is that the fire can burn through a fiber optic cable and cut off the NW area completely from all communication infrastructure. This means all services relying on internet or cell connectivity. There is no back up. This threat is a yearly occurence now. Fun times.