Architect behind viral ‘fire proof’ home explains how it survived

“No words really, just a horror show. Some of the design choices we made here helped, but we were also very lucky,” Santa Monica-based architect Greg Chasen shared in a now viral post on X.

The home, located on Iliff Street, remained standing while every other property on the street was completely destroyed.

Chasen is the architect behind the now infamous home that survived the Palisades Fire.

“What I saw was truly chilling. I saw a house burning, buildings falling, and clearly the entire neighborhood was on fire. You could hear propane tanks exploding, and you would know that was a house exploding each time,” Chasen described watching the Palisades Fire break out on Tuesday, Jan. 7.

The day after the fire broke out, Chasen headed for the home he designed to see how it held up.

“We had one bit of resilience there, that the building we had spent so much time on, and was really a labor of love, and to see it still standing was really a lot,” Chasen said in an interview with KTLA.

He explained the decisions he made to make sure the home would survive a fire, including: keeping the perimeter of the house clear of brush, planting fire safe plants, having fire-rated walls , tempered glass windows, metal roof, building envelope fully insulated with no vents, and a concrete perimeter.

Chasen said he hopes building codes are tightened, including making roof vents and fire-rated walls to be required. He said prefabricated roof trusts seemed to perform poorly during the recent wildfires outbreak.

Beyond the replacement of a couple of glass panels, and minor ash residue on the interior, Chasen claims that the home is otherwise fine.

“Totally livable,” Chasen wrote. “Hung out in there today.” Chasen said he learned a lot from the wildfires and he plans on being more diligent about clearing brush around his own home.