"Deschutes County has been developing a wildfire hazard map," Rowe told the council at its Thursday, July 12, meeting. "The county recently passed an ordinance which adopted the map.

"The ordinance will change building codes to better promote fire safety, mainly specifying what roofing materials will be allowed," Rowe said.

The ordinance allows for existing shake roofs to remain; it only prohibits the building of new ones.

Rowe went on to say that the ordinance didn't cover incorporated cities. He was hoping that Redmond, Bend, and Sisters would consider adopting the ordinance and ban the use of shake roofs.

"There would be three benefits for the city of Sisters in adopting this ordinance," he said. "Number one, Sisters would be more fire safe. Number two, it would help out the fire department by slowing the spread of house fires, and, three, it would give you a better chance to get grants."

Rowe noted that most houses that are destroyed by fire in Central Oregon have shake roofing.