This KB Home Southern California subdivision is setting a new standard in fire prevention.
In January, more than 18,000 structures were destroyed and 57,000 acres burned by a series of wildfires in Southern California. In March, KB Home unveiled an example of how to prevent that type of devastation in the future: Dixon Trail, a 64-home community in Escondido, California, that is designed as the nation’s first wildfire-resilient housing project.
Roughly half of the $1 million-plus custom homes are complete. Those—and the ones to come—were or will be built to stringent house and neighborhood-level wildfire resilience standards developed by the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS).
The Dixon Trail subdivision is designed to be more wildfire-resilient than any others, largely due to the handling of landscape and housing design. Credit: KB Home
The South Carolina-based nonprofit research firm’s Wildlife Prepared Home Plus certification is given to homes that take steps to “meaningfully reduce wildfire risk to their home and property.” IBHS also offers safety guidance for homes in high wind, hail and rain areas.
According to IBHS, the Dixon Trail project will, during its buildout, receive a provisional neighborhood-level designation based on its design, confirming that the community has implemented preventative measures to “reduce the likelihood of initial ignitions from an approaching wildfire.” Once the neighborhood is completed and has passed an IBHS evaluation, it will receive a Wildfire Prepared Neighborhood designation.
Massive Southern California wildfires—such as the Palisades Fire in January—have made fire-resilient homes a priority for builders and homebuyers. Credit: U.S. Forest Service
This will be the first time that IBHS is granting certification to an entire community, as opposed to individual homes, according to the nonprofit.
In Dixon Trail’s case, certification means each home has Class A fire-rated roofing (primarily asphalt fiberglass composition shingles), noncombustible gutters, ember- and flame-resistant vents, upgraded windows and doors, and a 5-foot noncombustible perimeter buffer and 5- to 30-foot defensible space zone around the house to protect it from catching fire. Those safeguards are already required by the California Department of Insurance (CDI) for individual residences in fire-dangerous areas.
At the neighborhood level, wildfire risk is further reduced via requirements such as maintaining a defensible space of at least 30 feet, decreasing potential fuels through use of fire-resistant materials such as all-metal fence systems and fake window shutters made of stucco, and ensuring there is at least 6 inches of vertical noncombustible material at the base of exterior walls and decks. Homeowners will also need to do their part through actions such as cleaning debris from roofs and gutters, IBHS notes.
According to Steve Ruffner, president of KB Home Coastal, Dixon Trail’s development was already underway when he saw an IBHS fire-resistance demonstration in 2024. In the demo, flammable landscaping in front of two side-by-side sheds—one built to 1980s code, and the other to California’s wildfire building code from 2008—was set ablaze. “I was shocked,” Ruffner told USA Today. “The one built to the 1980s code burned down in 45 minutes. The other one didn’t burn at all.”
That led to a quick redesign of the Dixon Trail project, with KB Home using the IBHS standards as a template.
A resistance test in 2024 revealed that a shed built to 1980s standards (left) can't hold up to a fire, while one constructed under 2008 standards (right) isn't harmed. Credit: Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety.
Jeffrey Mezger, KB Home’s chairman and CEO, says the company is proud to be IBHS’ initial community-level Wildlife Prepared Home Plus designation recipient. “In keeping with our tradition of innovation, we are [also] pleased to offer today’s buyers the ability to choose a wildfire-resilient home and community,” Mezger notes.
Holding the (Fire) Line
From a fire safety standpoint, Dixon Trail is a perfect example. Escondido, a 151,000-person city about 30 miles from downtown San Diego, has had its own brushes with danger. In 2007, 50 homes were destroyed by the 198,000-acre Witch Creek Fire; it was the largest wildfire in city history. In 2014, 12 single-family homes burned from the 2,000-acre Cocos Fire. Numerous other tiny wildfires have occurred throughout this century.
The fact that all Dixon Trail homes have been or will be built to fire-resilient standards makes wildfires less of a concern than for individual homes scattered within a neighborhood, according to IBHS. A wildfire-prepared community can be a passive fire break because it can prevent a blaze from leapfrogging house to house within the subdivision. In turn, the fire can be kept away from less-protected homes nearby.
That makes the IBHS designation even more impressive, the nonprofit notes. Earlier designation attempts by other subdivision builders, as well as owners of new and existing homes elsewhere, could have lessened destruction caused by recent major fires.
Wildlife Prepared Home Plus certification and the California Department of Insurance require a noncombustible perimeter buffer and defensible space zone around each house. Credit: KB Home
January’s disastrous blazes in the Altadena, Pacific Palisades, and Malibu neighborhoods surrounding Los Angeles highlighted the wildfire risk many California homes face. Economic losses of roughly $250 billion made the combined wildfires into one of the costliest natural disasters in U.S. history, according to AccuWeather.
Months later, the risk of disaster remains. Across Southern California, the number of areas with a “very high fire hazard” have increased by 26 percent since 2011, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE).
But there may be a benefit. According to a report in Fortune, many home insurers are no longer offering or renewing plans in California, while others are reducing coverage and/or raising insurance rates at a national level every year. This includes national giants such as Allstate, Farmers Insurance Group, State Farm, The Hartford, and Nationwide subsidiary Nationwide Private Client.
CDI is actively promoting “home hardening” through its “Safer from Wildfires” program. The program encourages homeowners to implement wildfire safety measures similar to those at Dixon Trail, which would make owners eligible for potential insurance discounts.
Fire resilience items include windows with two panes of tempered glass, which will not shatter in heat. Credit: KB Home
Reducing a home’s risk profile, which could then lower its insurance premium, would “continue with the affordability mission that we’ve been on for many years,” said Jacob Atalla, KB Home’s vice president of sustainability at KB Home, in a report in Fortune.
Residents of homes throughout Southern California should take similar safety actions, according to Ruffner.
"Frankly, this can be done at a reasonable price,” Ruffner said, in a report in Fortune. “If you live in an area where you could be impacted like this, you could do a lot of this stuff to your home.”
Ruffner added that KB Home plans to share what it learns from these fire safety actions with other California builders in the hope that the whole industry will continue to adapt.
Alan Naditz is managing editor of Green Builder Magazine. He has covered numerous industries in his extensive career, including residential and commercial construction, small and corporate business, real estate and sustainability.
First U.S. Wildfire-Resilient Housing Project
This KB Home Southern California subdivision is setting a new standard in fire prevention.
Roughly half of the $1 million-plus custom homes are complete. Those—and the ones to come—were or will be built to stringent house and neighborhood-level wildfire resilience standards developed by the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS).
The Dixon Trail subdivision is designed to be more wildfire-resilient than any others, largely due to the handling of landscape and housing design. Credit: KB Home
The South Carolina-based nonprofit research firm’s Wildlife Prepared Home Plus certification is given to homes that take steps to “meaningfully reduce wildfire risk to their home and property.” IBHS also offers safety guidance for homes in high wind, hail and rain areas.
According to IBHS, the Dixon Trail project will, during its buildout, receive a provisional neighborhood-level designation based on its design, confirming that the community has implemented preventative measures to “reduce the likelihood of initial ignitions from an approaching wildfire.” Once the neighborhood is completed and has passed an IBHS evaluation, it will receive a Wildfire Prepared Neighborhood designation.
Massive Southern California wildfires—such as the Palisades Fire in January—have made fire-resilient homes a priority for builders and homebuyers. Credit: U.S. Forest Service
This will be the first time that IBHS is granting certification to an entire community, as opposed to individual homes, according to the nonprofit.
In Dixon Trail’s case, certification means each home has Class A fire-rated roofing (primarily asphalt fiberglass composition shingles), noncombustible gutters, ember- and flame-resistant vents, upgraded windows and doors, and a 5-foot noncombustible perimeter buffer and 5- to 30-foot defensible space zone around the house to protect it from catching fire. Those safeguards are already required by the California Department of Insurance (CDI) for individual residences in fire-dangerous areas.
At the neighborhood level, wildfire risk is further reduced via requirements such as maintaining a defensible space of at least 30 feet, decreasing potential fuels through use of fire-resistant materials such as all-metal fence systems and fake window shutters made of stucco, and ensuring there is at least 6 inches of vertical noncombustible material at the base of exterior walls and decks. Homeowners will also need to do their part through actions such as cleaning debris from roofs and gutters, IBHS notes.
According to Steve Ruffner, president of KB Home Coastal, Dixon Trail’s development was already underway when he saw an IBHS fire-resistance demonstration in 2024. In the demo, flammable landscaping in front of two side-by-side sheds—one built to 1980s code, and the other to California’s wildfire building code from 2008—was set ablaze. “I was shocked,” Ruffner told USA Today. “The one built to the 1980s code burned down in 45 minutes. The other one didn’t burn at all.”
That led to a quick redesign of the Dixon Trail project, with KB Home using the IBHS standards as a template.
A resistance test in 2024 revealed that a shed built to 1980s standards (left) can't hold up to a fire, while one constructed under 2008 standards (right) isn't harmed. Credit: Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety.
Jeffrey Mezger, KB Home’s chairman and CEO, says the company is proud to be IBHS’ initial community-level Wildlife Prepared Home Plus designation recipient. “In keeping with our tradition of innovation, we are [also] pleased to offer today’s buyers the ability to choose a wildfire-resilient home and community,” Mezger notes.
Holding the (Fire) Line
From a fire safety standpoint, Dixon Trail is a perfect example. Escondido, a 151,000-person city about 30 miles from downtown San Diego, has had its own brushes with danger. In 2007, 50 homes were destroyed by the 198,000-acre Witch Creek Fire; it was the largest wildfire in city history. In 2014, 12 single-family homes burned from the 2,000-acre Cocos Fire. Numerous other tiny wildfires have occurred throughout this century.
The fact that all Dixon Trail homes have been or will be built to fire-resilient standards makes wildfires less of a concern than for individual homes scattered within a neighborhood, according to IBHS. A wildfire-prepared community can be a passive fire break because it can prevent a blaze from leapfrogging house to house within the subdivision. In turn, the fire can be kept away from less-protected homes nearby.
That makes the IBHS designation even more impressive, the nonprofit notes. Earlier designation attempts by other subdivision builders, as well as owners of new and existing homes elsewhere, could have lessened destruction caused by recent major fires.
Wildlife Prepared Home Plus certification and the California Department of Insurance require a noncombustible perimeter buffer and defensible space zone around each house. Credit: KB Home
January’s disastrous blazes in the Altadena, Pacific Palisades, and Malibu neighborhoods surrounding Los Angeles highlighted the wildfire risk many California homes face. Economic losses of roughly $250 billion made the combined wildfires into one of the costliest natural disasters in U.S. history, according to AccuWeather.
Months later, the risk of disaster remains. Across Southern California, the number of areas with a “very high fire hazard” have increased by 26 percent since 2011, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE).
But there may be a benefit. According to a report in Fortune, many home insurers are no longer offering or renewing plans in California, while others are reducing coverage and/or raising insurance rates at a national level every year. This includes national giants such as Allstate, Farmers Insurance Group, State Farm, The Hartford, and Nationwide subsidiary Nationwide Private Client.
CDI is actively promoting “home hardening” through its “Safer from Wildfires” program. The program encourages homeowners to implement wildfire safety measures similar to those at Dixon Trail, which would make owners eligible for potential insurance discounts.
Fire resilience items include windows with two panes of tempered glass, which will not shatter in heat. Credit: KB Home
Reducing a home’s risk profile, which could then lower its insurance premium, would “continue with the affordability mission that we’ve been on for many years,” said Jacob Atalla, KB Home’s vice president of sustainability at KB Home, in a report in Fortune.
Residents of homes throughout Southern California should take similar safety actions, according to Ruffner.
"Frankly, this can be done at a reasonable price,” Ruffner said, in a report in Fortune. “If you live in an area where you could be impacted like this, you could do a lot of this stuff to your home.”
Ruffner added that KB Home plans to share what it learns from these fire safety actions with other California builders in the hope that the whole industry will continue to adapt.
By Alan Naditz
Alan Naditz is managing editor of Green Builder Magazine. He has covered numerous industries in his extensive career, including residential and commercial construction, small and corporate business, real estate and sustainability.Also Read