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David La Rochelle stands in front of his concrete house being built in Silverado to replace a house lost to the 2017 Atlas Fire.
David La Rochelle's new house-to-be in Silverado has concrete walls, all the better to survive future wildfires.
David Rochelle stands near this house being built in Silverado to replace one lost in the 2017 Atlas Fire.
Workers spray concrete to form the walls of David La Rochelle's new house in Silverado. He last house burned in the 2017 Atlas Fire and the new one is being designed to survive wildfires.
Construction crews on a recent day work on a house that David La Rochelle is having built in Silverado to replace one lost to the 2017 Atlas Fire. He thinks the concrete construction will be extremely fire resistant.
A cement beam in David La Rochelle's new house in Silverado. It is being built to survive wildfires.
David La Rochelle is rebuilding his Silverado home that burned down during the 2017 Atlas Fire, and he’s determined the new home won’t share a similar fate.
The retired orthopedic surgeon is having a concrete house built by Santa Rosa-based Gateway Builders at the Westgate Drive site. Workers on a recent day scurried here and there as they worked on the walls amid a maze of temporary steel support beams.
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“It’s a fort,” La Rochelle said.
But it won’t look like a fort. Rather, the 9,853-square-foot house is to look for the most part like the previous house, in a style the architect calls modern Mediterranean.
Just don’t look for a lot of wood. About the only wood to be seen at the construction site on a recent day was for the forms.
This house is designed not to burn.
“It’s made out of non-combustible materials,” La Rochelle said as workers built his house. “The only wood that’s going to be in it is kitchen cabinets, cabinets in bathrooms, stuff like that.”
He’ll be ready for a worst-case scenario, too. The house will have a 7,000-gallon cistern to hold water for firefighting if local hydrants aren’t working during a wildfire. The water can also be used for irrigation.
La Rochelle pondered the odds of this house surviving the next wildfire if another wildfire happens.
“I think it’s about 98% it will stand,” he said. “There’s nothing on the outside to burn, except for a few bushes that will be six feet from the house.”
His concrete house isn’t remotely like the concrete warehouses locals might often see being built in Napa County’s airport industrial area. David Hosking of Gateway Builders said this isn’t tilt-up construction, where walls are cast and then lifted into place using cranes.
He and Gateway Builders President Matt Watson stood near the house-to-be where workers shot concrete through a hose onto fire-resistant RSG-3D insulated foam panels. The concrete sandwiches the panels.
One way fires start in homes amid wildfires is sparks go into the house through attic and floor vents. Hosking said the vents are used to control mold and mildew. Since concrete doesn’t have a mold problem, vents aren’t needed with LaRochelle’s house.
If Hosking is right, people who see this house when it’s finished will be surprised.
“You’d say, ‘Is this a concrete house? It looks just like a regular house,’” he said.
La Rochelle said the concrete construction doesn’t cost any more than wood construction.
The Westgate Drive area borders a “very high fire severity zoned” as mapped by Cal Fire. La Rochelle recalled the Atlas Peak wildfire of 1981, an arson-caused blaze that destroyed close to 60 homes.
He could see the fire coming down the hill near his house. No water was available from hydrants. The fire stopped advancing by his back fence and the house survived.
The Atlas Peak Fire was a close call for him. Far worse, though, was the night of Oct. 8, 2017, when the 2017 Atlas Fire broke out on Atlas Peak amid wind gusts reported up to 70 mph.
La Rochelle turned on the television news at 10 p.m. and the newscaster said people living in the Atlas Peak area should leave. He looked outside and could see the glow of fire on the ridgeline.
“That was our warning,” he said.
He returned to the house at 11:40 p.m. to get another car and his house still stood. He thought it would survive and thinks radiant heat ultimately was why it later caught on fire.
Westgate Drive was hit hard by the Atlas Fire. Today, vacant lots line portions of the street where homes once stood.
The La Rochelle project is to be finished by year’s end. Then La Rochelle will have what he calls a “beautiful home” that’s built to withstand a wildfire.
The 2017 Atlas, Tubbs, and Nuns fires and 2020 LNU Lightning Complex and Glass fires destroyed 1,329 homes in Napa County and 938 of the owners have yet to file a rebuilding application, the county recently reported.
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David La Rochelle stands in front of his concrete house being built in Silverado to replace a house lost to the 2017 Atlas Fire.
Construction crews on a recent day work on a house that David La Rochelle is having built in Silverado to replace one lost to the 2017 Atlas Fire. He thinks the concrete construction will be extremely fire resistant.
Workers spray concrete to form the walls of David La Rochelle's new house in Silverado. He last house burned in the 2017 Atlas Fire and the new one is being designed to survive wildfires.
A cement beam in David La Rochelle's new house in Silverado. It is being built to survive wildfires.
David La Rochelle's new house-to-be in Silverado has concrete walls, all the better to survive future wildfires.
David Rochelle stands near this house being built in Silverado to replace one lost in the 2017 Atlas Fire.
David La Rochelle lost his Silverado home to the 2017 Atlas fire. His new house will be concrete to survive future fires, though it will look similar to the prior home.
David La Rochelle stands in front of his concrete house being built in Silverado to replace a house lost to the 2017 Atlas Fire.
Construction crews on a recent day work on a house that David La Rochelle is having built in Silverado to replace one lost to the 2017 Atlas Fire. He thinks the concrete construction will be extremely fire resistant.
Workers spray concrete to form the walls of David La Rochelle's new house in Silverado. He last house burned in the 2017 Atlas Fire and the new one is being designed to survive wildfires.
A cement beam in David La Rochelle's new house in Silverado. It is being built to survive wildfires.
David La Rochelle's new house-to-be in Silverado has concrete walls, all the better to survive future wildfires.
David Rochelle stands near this house being built in Silverado to replace one lost in the 2017 Atlas Fire.
You can reach Barry Eberling at 256-2253 or beberling@napanews.com.
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Barry Eberling covers Napa County government, transportation, the environment and general assignments. He has worked for the Napa Valley Register since fall 2014 and previously worked 27 years for the Daily Republic of Fairfield.
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David La Rochelle stands in front of his concrete house being built in Silverado to replace a house lost to the 2017 Atlas Fire.
David La Rochelle's new house-to-be in Silverado has concrete walls, all the better to survive future wildfires.
David Rochelle stands near this house being built in Silverado to replace one lost in the 2017 Atlas Fire.
Workers spray concrete to form the walls of David La Rochelle's new house in Silverado. He last house burned in the 2017 Atlas Fire and the new one is being designed to survive wildfires.
Construction crews on a recent day work on a house that David La Rochelle is having built in Silverado to replace one lost to the 2017 Atlas Fire. He thinks the concrete construction will be extremely fire resistant.
A cement beam in David La Rochelle's new house in Silverado. It is being built to survive wildfires.
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