RANCHO SANTA FE, Calif. – Dr. Jorge Llorente became irritated recently when the fire department kept rejecting his plans to landscape his hacienda-style home with jacarandas and avocado trees.

But he is grateful now.

Those restrictions may well have saved his multimillion-dollar home when a wildfire passed through last week.

“Now that we have a chance to see how it works we are tickled pink,” the retired surgeon said. “I’m a convert. I’m a true believer.”

Rancho Santa Fe has lots of converts after braving last week’s Southern California’s wildfires, the first major test of the stringent construction and landscaping standards adopted by the community in 1997. The San Diego suburb lost 53 houses, but none of them were in the five subdivisions that embraced restrictions designed to be so tough that people can stay in their homes if they cannot evacuate.

As Southern California begins to rebuild from the blazes that killed at least seven people and destroyed more than 2,000 homes, homeowners and government officials are looking at places as far away as Australia and as nearby as Stevenson Ranch in Santa Clarita, north of Los Angeles, that have adopted super-strict standards that require such precautions as nonflammable roofs, indoor sprinklers and regular watering of shrubs.

Rancho Santa Fe practices a strategy known as “shelter-in-place,” designed to insulate homes from flames if people cannot evacuate.

The fire department in Rancho Santa Fe, whose past residents include Bing Crosby and Howard Hughes, scrutinizes plans for every tree and bush and sends inspectors with measuring tapes to make sure its orders are obeyed.

Trees and bushes must be a certain distance from the house and cannot exceed a certain height. Roofs must be nonflammable; shrubs near the house must always be watered. Indoor sprinklers are a must.

Columns must be constructed masonry, stucco or precast concrete; windows must be dual-paned or tempered glass; wood fences cannot touch the home itself.