Recent news stories highlight the importance for the manufactured home industry of providing reporters and editors with the information necessary to get the terms right. As several recent cases concerning fires in likely pre-HUD Code mobile homes demonstrate, new reports frequently and inadvertently paint manufactured homes in a bad light, when the homes in question are not modern manufactured homes at all.  Channel WAFB in Louisiana ran a story December 14 titled “Flames destroy manufactured home in minutes.” We asked an expert, who says visual evidence from the photo suggests this is a pre-HUD Code mobile home, not a manufactured home built to the federal safety standards established by the HUD Code. Thus by definition, the home is most likely not a manufactured home; it’s a mobile home. A separate story, this one in the Lancaster Eagle Gazette in Ohio states, “for owners of manufactured homes, it’s even more important to make sure your home is fire-safe. Manufactured housing has the highest risk of fire deaths because fires spread faster–particularly in homes built before new safety standards took effect in 1976.” “If you’re following closely, you know that manufactured homes were not built before June 15, 1976,” says MHMSM.com Publisher L.A. ‘Tony’ Kovach.  “So a home built before that date is a mobile home that was built to different standards. ‘Manufactured home’ or ‘manufactured housing’ are the terms properly given to the homes upon the adoption of the HUD Code in June 15, 1976.”  MHMSM.com recently interviewed insurance experts who confirmed a manufactured home built to the HUD code is no more prone to fire than a site-built home. Insurance studies confirm they are as safe as or safer than conventional housing. Read the article here: http://www.mhmsm.com/industry-news/industry-in-focus/1260-do-manufactured-homes-burn-faster Find a recent press release here:   http://www.prlog.org/11164985-news-stories-highlight-importance-of-media-education-on-manufactured-homes.html