SUPERIOR, Colo. — With searing heat settling in over metro Denver and the Colorado front range through the weekend, the fire danger is elevated.
The threat of wildfire has those rebuilding from the Marshall Fire a bit on edge.
“There is some PTSD associated with the fire,” said Philip Rosenberg-Watt, who is now rebuilding after his home in Superior burned down during the Marshall Fire.
His rebuild might not look like a traditional home construction project, which is exactly how Rosenberg-Watt intended it.
“It was long and painful to come up with a design,” he said. “We wanted to build a place that wouldn’t burn down again, with any luck.”
His new home in Superior is being built by Constructive Alternatives, a Colorado-based company that specializes in energy efficient, fire-resistant construction.
“It’s called an ICF product, so it’s like insulated concrete forms,” said Lucas Picard whose father founded Constructive Alternatives. “The blocks we use are cool. They’re pretty much like adult Legos in my mind.”
Constructive Alternatives has now built about 10 homes in Colorado.
“We’ve been working with this product for years and years and years and now it’s finally starting to come more around,” Picard said. “And people are getting interested in it; it’s getting better promoted.”
“We had to think outside of the box and find designers who could do that,” said Rosenberg-Watt. “They take Styrofoam and chop it up and recycle it and put it into forms with cement and they make these blocks.”
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Rosenberg-Watt believes the extreme heat and fire danger in the forecast this weekend help to punctuate the point of building a home like this.
“We’re trying to build it for any kind of catastrophe we can imagine,” Rosenberg-Watt said. “This house and the building materials, in particular, are going to be very resilient, they’re going to be really high performing; So, we’re going to spend very little on our energy – heating and cooling bills.”
A fortress of sorts.
“And his windows are recessed in the back and then there’s a roll system, a shutter system that will actually drop down if this actually senses a fire,” said Daniel ‘Ghost’ Shea. “It’ll pretty much lock itself up.”
“He’s building a pretty bomber thing over here,” Picard said.
Built to last, built to save money, and built to survive catastrophic situations.
“We’ve had some buildings go through fires and become stronger,” Picard said. “In the long run, it’s going to pay for itself, many times over,” said Rosenberg-Watt.