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Originally Posted by RWin
So whats the difference? Construction materials? Construction methods? Response time (my old neighbourhood was fairly close to a fire station)?
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There are so many factors.
It was a struggle for me to get my home insured (which was required by the mortgage). The main insurers here are simply unwilling to cover downtown rowhouses, which are almost universally wooden with felt (highly flammable) roofs, attached with minimal fire proofing between homes, and with oil tanks in their basements instead of outside. My coverage is to average home insurance what Money Mart is to an average bank.
The main priority for fire departments is to protect the greatest number of people possible and, once that's settled, the greatest value of property possible. Letting one house or more burn to focus limited firefighters and equipment on preventing the spread to surrounding homes is often the best choice in certain neighbourhoods.
Here, when there's a fire, they try to prevent it from reaching the basement (BOOM) and from spreading along the highly flammable roofs to other homes.
Here was the last one on my block, for example:
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