Protect your home from wildfire embers

Did you know that in a wildfire it's the wind-driven embers, not the direct flames, that are the biggest threat to your house. Here are some simple steps you can take in a weekend to protect your house.
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[@cranesouder7003]

Here is my fire prevention strategy. I covered the entire exterior of my 1000 sq. ft. house with 1/2" sheetrock, then house wrap, then 1/4" cement board, then 1\2" cement board from ground level to three feet up. All exterior wood trim is covered with galvanized metal and the windows are plugged with removable 1/2" sheetrock. There is absolutely no combustible material on the exterior of the house including the roof. As an extra measure during fire season, I lean two foot tall 1/2" thick panels of sheetrock against base of the house to create a fire-resistant berm which keeps fire two feet away from the walls. Even if the sheetrock deteriorates and crumbles after several hours of intense heat the fire still has to burn through 1 1/4" of noncombustible cement board and sheetrock, which will not happen! The ground around the house has been cleared of any combustible material to a distance of at least six feet all around the house and any vegetation within sixty feet of the house is kept to a height of no more than four inches. Trees are kept far enough away so should any tree catch fire the flames will stay at least ten feet away from the house. To test my modifications, I built a four foot by eight foot test wall which replicates the house wall construction and two three foot by eight foot wing walls on each side of the wall, in order to contain the heat of the fire that I built at the base of the wall. I fanned the fire to simulate a twenty mile per hour wind which brought the fire up to around 1000 degrees. I kept stoking the fire for five hours. (I did the test without using the two foot tall 1/2" thick panels of sheetrock leaning against the house.) The end result was the that the first 12" of the exterior 1/2" cement board crazed, cracked and crumbled, however the next layer behind the 1/2" cement board which was 1/4" cement board became slightly brittle but did not crumble and the next layer behind that was 1/2" sheetrock which was unscathed. I also did a heat test on the entire wall while the fire was burning with the following results. The temperature within the first 12" was approximately 1000 degrees Fahrenheit, at 20" up the temperature dropped to approximately 600 degrees, at 40" up the temperature was approximately 350 degrees, at 60" up the temperature was 200 degrees, at 80" up the temperature was 125 degrees and at 96" up the temperature was basically ambient temperature. I found that the first 20" from the ground level are by far the most vulnerable.