Out of Harm’s Way : Dream Home Built Into Mountain Survives Fire

The true test of Mary Ellen Strote’s dream house in the Santa Monica Mountains was a trial by fire. And it passed.

As this month’s Old Topanga firestorm raced across the mountains to Malibu, Strote’s underground concrete house at the top of Stunt Road escaped virtually unscathed--even though it was bombarded by swirling fingers of flame.

“There is no worse case than this,” Strote, 51, said last week as she walked among the blackened manzanita that surrounded her home and sprouted atop its dirt roof. “I did not have one bit of damage inside the house.”

Although the view from her front porch is of a landscape charred and denuded by the fire’s unforgiving advance, Strote’s three-bedroom burrow performed exactly as planned--like a luxury bomb shelter.

Fire officials and environmentalists praised Strote’s foresight in building a house that not only resists nature’s fiery tantrums, but also blends so well into the natural landscape that it is virtually invisible.

“Sounds to me like she thought ahead a little bit,” said Los Angeles County Fire Capt. Joe Montoya, who oversees the Malibu fire prevention unit. “Construction is very important.”

And some suggested that Strote’s house could serve as a model for future development in the Santa Monicas, forsaking faux chateaus for more sensitive and sensible designs.

“Two things impress me about that house,” said Dave Brown, Calabasas planning commissioner and Sierra Club leader. “One is that it survived the fire. But in addition to that, it is unobtrusive. The hillside is beautiful.

“When they build these white stucco houses on the hilltops . . . they destroy it for everybody else,” Brown said. “It’s tasteless stuff that doesn’t blend with the land at all.

“She has managed to build her dream house in the mountains without destroying it for the public,” he said.

Indeed, one Los Angeles County official quipped that a task force looking for ways to improve construction and safety standards in areas prone to brush fires could use Strote’s house as Exhibit A.

Not that Strote would wish upon anyone the hassles she went through to build her dream house--a 4,000-square-foot steel-reinforced concrete structure tucked into the side of a mountain west of Topanga Canyon.

It took more than three years to build and went thousands of dollars over budget. To this day, Strote won’t say how much it cost, but concrete contractors said similar structures can run at least $1 million.

Most of the cost overruns, Strote said, stemmed from problems with the architect and various contractors who signed on and then quit because of the complexity of the job.

But Strote said it was worth the effort when she drove back to her house in the days after the fire. She looked over at the site of a traditional wooden house on her property. All that remained was the foundation and fireplace. After a steam cleaning to remove scorch marks, her concrete house looked as good as new.

“I have an enormous respect for fire,” she said. “I figured if I was going to live up here, I did not want to live in fear. And I don’t--especially now.”

Much of the house is dug into the side of the mountain and the reinforced concrete roof is topped with native plants in two feet of dirt. “The theory was that they would burn off and then sprout again,” said Strote, who belongs to the Sierra Club and the Nature Conservancy and sits on the board of the Cold Creek Canyon Preserve.

The foot-thick concrete walls are the same pinkish color as sandstone boulders nearby, and because the house conforms to the topography, it can only be seen from certain angles.

Although the house was designed to withstand wildfires, Strote nonetheless evacuated when the flames were headed her way. “I trusted the house, but I didn’t,” she said. “You know what I mean?”

Just as well, Montoya said. He said construction materials may retard fire, but no structure is fail-safe.

“Even if you build a concrete house with recessed windows, that’s no guarantee that it won’t burn,” he said. “It sure helps, though. Construction standards are important, but so is weed clearance and so is access and so is water.”

Nonetheless, Strote said she has faith that her house will withstand whatever nature throws at it--or on it. “It’s just a terrific way to build,” Strote said. “If you can stand doing it.”