The winds appear to have lulled in Los Angeles County as firefighters work to contain the Eaton and Palisades wildfires, which have destroyed over 12,300 buildings and caused, according to one estimate, over $30 billion in property damage. Amid the ongoing disaster, the ground is already being laid for the rebuilding effort. Over the weekend, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed an executive order waiving a key environmental regulation, known as CEQA, with the intention of jumpstarting construction.

While it remains to be seen what the rebuilding will look like, fire resilience is a big concern across the country, driven in part by climate change. So what would it take to make homes less likely to catch fire, including those built decades earlier? The answer kind of depends.

“When you’re dealing with retrofit, the conditions on the ground can vary so much that there’s significant variation [in cost],” said Kimiko Barrett, a wildfire research and policy analyst at Headwaters Economics who has examined the costs involved. “Some of these measures can be as cheap as $2,000 to $3,000, all the way to over $100,000 depending on where that risk comes from and the level of retrofit that’s required.”

Barrett spoke with “Marketplace” host Kai Ryssdal about the economics of retrofitting and what role governments can play in helping with the financial impact. The following is an edited transcript of their conversation.

Kai Ryssdal: Let’s get some definitions out of the way first, I suppose. “Hardening one’s home.” What does that mean?

Kimiko Barrett: I think a better terminology for that, Kai, would be structural improvements to the home itself in order to mitigate wildfire risk.

Ryssdal: But that’s a mouthful.

Barrett: Yeah, it is.

Ryssdal: What does it mean in practice?

Barrett: Sure. Modifications to the home itself, in terms of the building materials. In some cases, it would be the design of the home. But very often, when we talk about hardening a home, it’s fortifying it against increasing wildfire risk, and predominantly through ember cast, which ignites most homes, direct flame contact or through radiant heat. So again, we’re talking mostly about building materials themselves.

Ryssdal: All right. So look, if I want to take my home, which, granted, is old and has been around for a very long time, and harden it and it’s got wood siding on it, I would have to spend, I imagine, a chunk of money to not have wood siding. Is that what you’re saying?

Barrett: Well, so here’s the complex, wicked crisis that we’re dealing with when we think through retrofits. In some degrees, it can certainly be true, your statement of the cost, and in some times, it can be cost-prohibitive. But the alternative that is worth noting is that in some situations, there are actually very affordable and very effective risk-reduction strategies, things like eave design, things like vent replacement. Very, very importantly, think about that “zero-to-5-foot” perimeter around the home itself. If you have wood mulch, the suggested replacement would be to pull that out and put rock there. So when we think about retrofitting or reducing risk to a home, it’s essentially reducing that flammable surface area and opportunities for embers to ignite the structure itself.

Ryssdal: Not to in any way minimize the destruction and the personal tragedy of the events here in Los Angeles, but I imagine it’s easier and more cost-efficient to build new hardened homes than it is to retrofit the ones that are still standing.

Barrett: It is in the sense that you’re certain you’re swapping out building materials. So instead of using wood siding, you’re going to use fiber cement siding. Or alternatively, instead of using a wood roof, you might replace it with an asphalt or a metal roof. When you’re dealing with retrofit, you’re dealing with such legacy issues, and the conditions on the ground can vary so much that there’s significant variation [in cost]. But again, some of these measures can be as cheap as $2,000 to $3,000, all the way to over $100,000 depending on where that risk comes from and the level of retrofit that’s required.

Ryssdal: Right, on that high-end thing, is there a financing ecosystem supporting this, or am I going to have to take out a second mortgage?

Barrett: Yeah, so this is a supervalid question, and it depends, honestly, which state you’re in. At the federal scale right now, there is a significant lack of investment and funding for these home-hardening efforts. FEMA has a [Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities] program, but less than 5% of that goes towards wildfire projects. The state of California does have a very innovative and unique, leading pilot program on retrofits called the California Wildfire Mitigation Program, and they are the only state right now doing this at that level. There are smaller communities across the country that certainly help offset the costs and provide subsidies for homeowners to do these mitigation measures, but it is a big piece that’s missing when you think through that financing mechanism.

Ryssdal: And that then makes it tough to scale and make sure that people who need it can get this kind of thing done so that they can save their homes.

Barrett: It certainly does. Yeah, and we spoke to this. I was part of the Federal Wildland Fire Mitigation and Management Commission that was established through the Biden-Harris administration. And the first recommendation was the establishment of a federal agency that could look at community wildfire risk reduction, providing dedicated investment before a wildfire becomes a disaster.

Ryssdal: What was the response to that recommendation?

Barrett: It’s still going out there through Congress right now. We shall see. It’s an area that, you know, it’s not just wildfire risk, right? We as a society, at all levels, must be prepared for living with this increasing future of climate hazard and disaster. So now is the time to deliberately and thoughtfully think through what kind of future is that going to be and how do we integrate these building practices into new development and retrofits before a disaster takes place?