One of my main concerns with home design has been “what to do about wildfire” I know a lot has been written about fire resistant roofs, wall claddings, attic vents, doors, windows and deck design & construction, etc, but one area of residential detailing I haven’t seen a lot of comment on are the smaller building envelope penetrations, like HRV & ERV vents, bathroom fan vents, kitchen range hood vents, dryer vents, plumbing vents or HVAC and electrical boots.

For example, what good is having a long lasting waterproof rubber gasket wrapped around your roofs plumbing vent and covered with a protective plastic cover if they will melt easily in a fire and drip molten material down into your attic? Or if wildfire embers get blown into your ERV outlets and set the plastic vent covers on fire?

I have seen these two ads in every single edition of Fine Homebuilding magazine for the last several years (which would cause the average reader to assume that they “must be the best of the best” products available):

1. DryerJack.com (apparently this roof cap vent is the only choice that is “specifically designed to meet the demanding needs of clothes dryers”). They also say that code disallows screens and requires a damper (which apparently most “out-of-the-box” roof caps don’t have). It’s made from heavy gauge deep drawn powder coated galvanized steel.

2. DryerWallVent,com (also made from heavy gauge deep drawn powder coated galvanized steel). 

So I would think that these products, being metal, would hold up better than plastic in a wildfire situation, but what about the other building penetrations I mentioned? Are there other, or better, products for all these smaller holes in the building envelope that would do a much better job than plastic at protecting a home in a wildfire?