Reroofing with wildfire protection in mind

By Emma Peterson.

Combining fire resistance, wind protection and lasting curb appeal, Unified Steel® provided an ideal solution for a homeowner living in a wildfire-prone region.

2025 did not kick off well for homeowner Tilo Martin and his neighbors. Tilo’s home sits in the Pacific Palisades – the part of California that saw a 23,700 acre fire devestate the area in January 2025. And Tilo was one of the lucky ones; his home was not one of the more than 6,800 structures damaged. But after that experience, he was not wanting to take any chances with future fires and hired Anaheim-based Western Roofing Systems to reroof his home (which previously featured a coated wood shake roof) with wildfire protection in mind.

When he got Tilo’s request, Todd Brugma, the project consultant at Western, pointed the homeowner towards Unified Steel’s stone-coated steel roofing solutions. Why this system? Stone-coated steel roofing systems come with a Class A fire rating and, when fastened properly, can withstand Category 5 hurricane-force winds. These are crucial protections when thinking about the conditions that emerged during the Pacific Palisades fire, as Tim Brown, a Unified Steel territory manager, explained:

When you experience a fire like what happened here in Pacific Palisades, what it comes with is a firestorm — it creates 100- to 110-mph winds. Conventional roofs in a 110-mph windstorm will start to lift. Embers are your enemy; if an ember can enter and get to the plywood underneath, that’s when a home burns. Unified Steel interlocks on all four sides; that’s what makes it so fire resistant.

The system that the Western team installed for Tilo also featured 3” of rigid polyiso insulation underneath, along with fire-rated peel-and-stick underlayment. The result? A durable home that should stand up to the elements, whether that’s a fire threat or heavy rainfall, for the next few decades. Tilo couldn’t be more pleased with the results, telling Westlake Roofing Products, “I like the [stone coated steel] roof because it blends in; it doesn’t stick out. It doesn’t look like a metal roof — it looks like a shingle roof. I think it’s a great option — the fire safety, the high wind rating, the [50-year] warranty and the look of it.”

Learn more about Unified Steel stone coated roofing!