So what is the "right roof"?

It probably had ceramic or fire resistant roofing.  Roofs with wooden shingles (and the like) don't do well in fires.

No external or structural flammable materials and a functional sprinkler system. Like the one my father built and still lives in - steel framed brick veneer, colourbond steel roof, detachable iron shutters, spinklers gravity fed from a rainwater tank uphill from the house. In the "Black Summer" fires a few years ago, Dad stayed put when the rest of the street was evacuated and after the fire had very few neighbours - the houses on both sides burned to the ground but all he had to worry about was smoke blackened brickwork and a few heat-warped steel sheets on the roof. He sat in the bathtub and waited it out, with the sprinklers on trickle keeping the roof damp to deal with flying embers known locally as "spot fires" - he lives on a hillside overlooking a gully so the fire front swept past very quickly.

Spanish tiles seem like a good choice to me.  California has many houses with them, they look great.

Tin roof. Rusted.

"One decision that may have unknowingly helped it survive the wildfire — the deadliest in the US in more than a century — was replacing the asphalt roof with one made out of heavy-gauge metal, she told the LA paper."

https://nypost.com/2023/08/21/owner-of-mauis-unscathed-red-house-explains-why-it-survived/

There were other things the owners did that helped keep the house from burning.  You can read that in the link to the article.

If you live in fire prone area it's important to keep any brush cleared and have a perimeter around the house clear of flamables.  At the edge of the perimeter keep that watered back to the house.  I also read that digging a shallow ditch around your property that is filled with water will help.  That sounded a bit much since I think a waterway would have to be wider than probable for around a yard.   Just stuff I've picked up.  I've never been in a fire area, but Florida does have the problem in its interior.