A house with a wood shake roof and siding is often more likely to be destroyed during a wildfire. Using wood shakes or shingles for exterior materials in high fire hazard areas is like stacking hundreds of pounds of kindling on top of your home.

During the hot summer months, the shakes or shingles can be nearly bone dry and easily ignited by embers. The embers come from pieces of burning material that can be lofted high into the air during a wildfire and travel a mile or more from the actual fire.

Unfortunately, there is no effective, inexpensive long-term solution to the ember threat to wood roofs. It is recommended to replace wood shake or shingle roofs with rated, fire-resistant roofing material, such as asphalt composition shingles, metal, or concrete or clay tile. Although this can be expensive, it may well be the one thing that saves your home when the embers arrive.