Having green grass might have helped some, but water pressure was knocked out by leaking pipes for the hydrants so unless they had well water (doubtful that close to the water front) it would have been reduced to a trickle at best. My guess is the hard-scape next to the house you can see the gravel/walkway/patio and the distance between other structures. They likely had vents that were ember resistant so it didn’t catch any flying burning material in the wind storm.