Tag Archives: Untraditional Housing

Making Life on the Water Safer

Red Cross Volunteers bring home fire safety to the floating homes of Sausalito

Catherine Lee, Ron Lau, Vincent Valenzuela, Lesley Carmichael and Claire Cannariato (L to R) prepare to install smoke alarms in floating homes

“You’re on the water.  You’ve got wildlife out your window.  You’ve got the sun playing off the water.”

That’s how Flo Hoylman describes living aboard a houseboat in Sausalito, Calif., just north of the San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge. But Flo, who serves on the board of the Sausalito Floating Homes Association, knows she and her neighbors on the water are just as susceptible to fires as any other Californians. 

“We still burn. And if there was a fire, like there was in Santa Rosa, the embers would come down on us, too.”

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