In episode #16 of 2022 I spoke with Fred Malik about the Fortified Construction Program. The FORTIFIED construction method is a voluntary construction standard and program designed to help protect homes against sever weather events. Primarily wind driven damage event. FORTIFIED construction was created from decades of research that the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety or (IBHS) has conducted. Their lab allows for the building and testing of full-size houses in a controlled environment.

In this episode I am learning about a new IBHS program that has just been released and is of great interest to me because of my work as the Boulder County Marshall Fire New Homes Building Advisor. I spoke with Dan Gorham, a Research Engineer focusing on wildfire and its impact on the built environment at the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety. Like the Fortified programs focus on sever wind events, IBHS has focused its attention on wildfires and their impact on homes.  They have recently launched a new Wildfire Prepared Home Program which is a research driven program design to meaningfully reduce risk and better protecting homes against wildfire.  Dan was supper informative, and a pleasure to speak with, as he walked me through the IBHS research findings and the new Wildfire Prepared Home Program.

Dan Gorham on LinkedIn

Wildfire Prepared Home Program

Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety

FireWise USA

Colorado Firewise USA

Fortified Program