The house that Michael Kovac built is the only one on his street still standing after a huge fire raced through his Los Angeles neighborhood. Now this architect says the city needs to learn from homes like his as it begins to rebuild.”I think we always knew a fire was coming here,” he said of the ridgeline in Pacific Palisades where his house sits.Kovac and his wife, Karina Maher, who describe themselves as “avid environmentalists,” designed and constructed their home with that risk in mind.The walls are covered with non-flammable cement fiber siding, the windows are insulated to have the highest degree of protection against heat, the vents are covered in metal mesh and the fireproof roof is topped with soil and vegetation.Instead of a lawn, the garden is designed as a “defensive space,” where a bed of volcanic rocks is dotted with agave, dwarf olive trees and mother-in-law’s cushions — a striking spherical cactus.All of it is protected by a sprinkler system that can spray fire retardant to slow the spread of flames. “If most of the houses were built to something closer to this standard, I think the fire could have been contained,” Kovac told AFP of the blaze that erupted on January 7.Like many in Los Angeles, the 62-year-old was astounded by just how destructive the wind-driven fires were, with two major blazes razing around 40,000 acres (16,000 hectares) and leveling thousands of buildings.- Materials – As the city gradually turns its attention towards the long, slow process of rebuilding, Kovac hopes it will do so with fire resiliance in mind.Many houses in the western United States have timber frames, and a wholesale switch to something less vulnerable like brick is unlikely, as availability and cost are key drivers in construction choices.But even if the frame stays the same, hardening its cover doesn’t have to break the bank, says Kovac.”The choice to use, say, a cement siding instead of a wood siding, that’s almost a cost neutral thing,” he said.Footage from his home’s security cameras shows red-hot embers spraying all over the property — the same embers that allowed the fire to take hold of so many homes on his street.But not Kovac’s.”At that point you have to dismiss too much of it being luck. I mean, when it’s enveloped by embers and surrounded by flames… it’s down to the material choices and the systems to protect the house,” he said.Maher, a doctor who specializes in the effects of climate change on human health, says the fire was an obvious consequence of the way we are messing with our planet.”We know the solutions to slow it down, but we also know the solutions to adapt, and that’s what we all need to do,” she said.The devastation wrought by the fires was awful, says Yana Valachovic, a specialist in fire-resistant construction at the University of California, but it now presents an opportunity.Protecting a home from the ember showers that set so many houses ablaze is among the most pressing considerations, she said.That means hardening or stopping any ingress points, like vents.Other important considerations are using tempered glass — which is heat-resistant — and rethinking the way a garden is laid out.”Fire adaptation doesn’t require a huge investment, it just requires us living a little differently,” Valachovic said.

After US President Donald Trump dashed her hopes of gaining asylum in the United States, Arianne Dominguez joined hundreds of other migrants seeking refuge in Mexico instead.The 24-year-old Cuban arrived in Mexico less than two weeks before Trump took office on January 20 and almost immediately halted access to an app introduced by his predecessor Joe Biden to help process claims for entering the United States.”I was in shock,” Dominguez said.”I thought about my family in Cuba who were hoping I could get to the United States. Then I had to think about plan B,” she told AFP.The alternative she decided on was to stay in Mexico and obtain refuge status.She went to an office of the Mexican Commission for Refugee Assistance (COMAR) in a Mexico City suburb that is busy dealing with migrants seeking asylum in the Latin American nation.Venezuelans, Cubans and other foreigners fleeing poverty, violence and political persecution wait in line for days to begin the process.Juan Carmona, a 50-year-old Venezuelan mechanic, decided to stay in Mexico with his wife because they were unable to reach the United States.”We decided on Mexico. We liked it a lot and for now we want to do this in the best way possible, completely legally, not to become undocumented,” he said.In 2024, Mexico granted refuge to more than 26,800 foreigners, according to official figures.Migrants seeking assistance from the Mexican refugee agency have been waiting for days, some outdoors or sleeping in tents.Others are on waiting lists operated by the migrants themselves.- ‘Things are not good’ -In the southern city of Tapachula, long queues have also formed outside the COMAR offices as migrants wait under the gaze of soldiers guarding the building.Many of the migrants had — or were requesting — appointments with US authorities through the CBP One app.But now they see seeking asylum in Mexico as their best option for the moment.”We’re here to see if we can work while we’re here or to make a life here. Things are not good,” says Jose Ricardo Moreno, a 60-year-old Cuban who is traveling with his wife and 22-year-old daughter.Before Trump took office, Moreno was given an asylum appointment in the United States for February 2, but he lost it when CBP One was axed.Janqui Martin, a 43-year-old Cuban doctor, said he was tired of moving between countries and decided to stay in Mexico.”Mexico has welcomed us, opened the door to us and we have the possibility of working,” said  Martin, who left his wife and 12-year-old daughter in Cuba.On his first day back in office, Trump declared a national emergency at the US southern border and vowed to deport “millions and millions” of migrants.His administration said it would also reinstate a “Remain in Mexico” policy that prevailed during Trump’s first term, under which people who apply to enter the United States from Mexico must remain there until their application has been decided.The White House has also halted an asylum program for people fleeing authoritarian regimes in Central and South America, leaving thousands of people stranded on the Mexican side of the border.Trump’s office additionally said he had ordered 1,500 more military personnel to the border.Shakira Chaparro, a 29-year-old Venezuelan waiting in the border city of Tijuana, said that crossing over illegally was now too risky.”The best option is to stay here, find a way to get a permit to stay for a while or return to our country,” she said.