Wealthy Californians Now Coating Their Houses With Fire Retardant At $3.50 Per Square Foot
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I’ve been invited here to witness a demo of the product and hear Moseley’s side of recent events. In August 2019, as he geared up for fire season, prosecutors in Los Angeles and Santa Barbara sued him and his company, Sun FireDefense, for at least $5 million, alleging false or misleading advertising. The suit questioned the effectiveness of SPF 3000, denounced it as toxic, and asserted that, contrary to Moseley’s advertising, NASA had never worked with him on the product.
Moseley has described it as everything from a witch hunt to a regulatory matter that needs to be cleared up. In the meantime he’s temporarily stopped selling SPF 3000 to focus on his company’s other fire-protection gear. His website lists a high-tech fabric that can be used to keep embers from entering vents, laminates that protect windows from shattering under high heat, and intumescent coatings derived from aerospace technology that provide years of protection. These statements are similar to those made about SPF 3000.
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Shen Schulz, a longtime real estate agent in Malibu, says investments in firefighting resources are being driven in part by the “psychodrama” of the last burn. In the 2018 Woolsey Fire, which destroyed hundreds of homes in Malibu, family heirlooms went up in smoke, the stress caused divorces, and even the best insurance policies couldn’t bring it all back. “The fire department wasn’t able to put the fire out because there was no water in the hydrants,” Schulz says. “You have to take it into your own hands.”
Although it’s not cheap—SPF 3000 averages about $3.50 per square foot, which means it costs tens of thousands of dollars to cover a large home—Moseley’s product is another way the rich are trying to do just that. Fire experts express concern, though, that people are getting a false sense of security from expensive and unproven technology. For homes that are already standing in risky areas, some of the best protection comes from maintaining and designing landscaping so there’s less stuff to burn. Longer term, state and local governments might decide to buy out homeowners whose properties burn down to prevent redevelopment. Char Miller, a professor of environmental analysis at Pomona College in Claremont, Calif., says a wildfire remedy such as SPF 3000 is akin to taking hydroxychloroquine to fight Covid-19, something that people rush to use because it sounds promising but that doesn’t end up working. “It’s a fig leaf,” he says. “It’s a sign of desperation that people realize now, finally, that their great ridgetop view comes with risks.”
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https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2020-08-18/does-fire-retardant-spray-work-salesman-peddles-spf-3000-for-california-homes