Dangerous Buildings

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Permalink Reply by Gary Rauch on May 7, 2008 at 8:21pm

The photos that are shown I took in Lockport IL. The whole building as you can see are covered with the tie rods running throughout the building. These are used to tie an unstable walls together. Go to Frank Brannigans book "Building Construction for the Fire Service" third edition Chapter 4 page 161, under braced walls. It does not always indicate the the building is unstable, because they used to use these to strengthen the structure. But I would not take the chance with a structure this old. This is just one example of the plates that are used, you might even see decorative stars.

BE SAFE!

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Permalink Reply by Nate DeMarse on May 8, 2008 at 8:19am

Great stuff Gary. This is exactly what we are looking for.

Nate

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Permalink Reply by Gary Rauch on May 25, 2008 at 10:25am

Here's another building that we had in our district in Downers Grove IL. A bow trust roof with one trust that had the top cord failing. The companies were investigating another building across the street and were going to compare bow strings. And what they found with this structure you can see in the pictures below. The roof had a good size dip in it and the buttress was kicking out about 5%. So the building was red tagged and repaired, and I would give credit to companies for preventing a tragic event from happening. This is a good example of getting out and knowing your still district. The third picture is looking up at the bottom of the top cord that is failing, as you can see the laminated cord is spliting apart.

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Permalink Reply by Gary Rauch on May 25, 2008 at 10:28am

Here's a couple more of the same building. The first picture is showing the wall being push out about 5% which is being done by the top cord of the trust excerting pressure down on the butress and pushing it outward. And the second picture is the resulting crack starting to form.

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Permalink Reply by Nate DeMarse on May 25, 2008 at 10:54am

Wow, great find by the guys!

Gary,

Did they repair the building correctly or did they "band-aid" it. Is your building department involved with this and support your department by letting you know what has been done to correct the issue?

Nate

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Permalink Reply by Gary Rauch on May 25, 2008 at 10:58am

Yes, it was. The building was closed for about six months and they ended up replacing two truss'. The buiding department was called immediately as was fire prevention. Both departments jump on this and was corrected. The building owners did not even know about the failure until we asked to look at it when doing the other investigation.

Gary

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Permalink Reply by Kurt Callisen on May 25, 2008 at 12:47pm

What all these photos show is how important it is to get off the lazy boy and go out in your still and learn about the builings!!!!!! Once you have the info share it with your department and all the departments that may come to your town. Than have the info noted in a preplan that is easy to read and find, like in the command car. A great time to see the inside of a building or a house is during an EMS run. So remember the info you get is there to save are lives. So use it!


STAY SAFE


KURT

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Permalink Reply by Nate DeMarse on May 26, 2008 at 9:53am

Here is one from a few years back. Sorry about the photo quality, it was a throw-away camera, but I think you will get the point.

A few years ago we were dropping off the firehouse sheets and pillow cases to a laundromat in the neighborhood (the firehouse washer broke). As we left the laundromat, I noticed a scaffold and dumpster in front of the building next door. I wanted to give the building a closer look so we ducked inside.

I checked in with the contractor and he gave us free reign (as most do) to take a look around. For the most part, it was a typical construction zone with all of the debris that you would expect. We climbed up to the sixth floor to check out open voids and other details of buildings normally under construction.

This photo was taken as I walked in from the common hallway on the sixth floor. Details of this photo are not untypical of a construction site. Plaster & lath on the floor with stripped out door frames, holes in the walls and ceilings and other issues. If entering in a smoke condition, remember that if you can't see your feet you should be crawling. If you are operating a hose line, remember to sweep the floor to push the construction debris (nails, glass, plaster, lath, etc..) and other debris (hypodermic needles and other typical hazards of vacant buildings) away to avoid an injury to members crawling over it.

This photo was shot to the left of photo #1 (above) as I continued to walk through the apartment. This photo will reinforce our reasons for crawling while conducting searches or advancing hose lines in vacant buildings or in buildings under construction. Take note of the doorway and the missing bathroom floor. The bathtub is located in what once was the living room and awaiting removal.

Other notes:

* Holes in the plaster & lath will allow fire to enter the cockloft almost immediately.
* Presence of a child safety guard in the window
* Missing baseboards and other holes in walls & ceilings

This photo was taken as I approached the missing bathroom floor in the photo above. In a smoke condition, if you are not crawling and you choose to walk through this doorway to search the room, you will take a very long fall SIX FLOORS to the basement. Feel free to count the bathroom windows (one for each floor) to verify how long the fall would be. Note the floor joists that have been sawed near my foot in the photo.

In this building, they have removed the bathroom floors on ALL FLOORS of the "A" line and the "F" Line of apartments. This allows the bathrooms of one apartment (of the eight per floor) to act as a "debris chute". After discussing this with a senior man, he said that this was actually a very common method to renovate buildings in the past. This allows the company to avoid carrying the construction debris down the stairs, saving time, manpower and money. It creates an efficient "debris chute" so bathtubs, fixtures, cabinets, sinks and other construction debris can be taken to one of these apartments and dropped from that floor. In the cellar, (typically street level in the rear) they will collect and sort the debris and either remove it to the dumpster placed in the street or set it aside to be sold as scrap.

So why is this important to us? In addition to the search and fall hazard that I discussed above, it is also a direct vertical avenue for fire spread. Any fire condition in the "A" or "F" line of apartments will immediately cause fire to spread to all floors and the cockloft.

The only way to find issues like this is to do a little "sniffing" around at construction sites. If you happen to have a fire in a vacant or renovated building, crawl when searching or advancing hose lines. If you can't see your feet, you should be on your knees. While your area may not have a 6 story non-fireproof building under renovation like this one, you probably have a two or three story apartment building that may conceal the same condition.

Get out into your areas and get into your buildings.

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Permalink Reply by Scott Richardson on May 26, 2008 at 4:06pm

GREAT Discussion Brothers! When I return to the station I will dig some out. I know we have plenty.

Thanks for starting this, it WILL save a life!

Scott Richardson
Founder
On the Job Emergency Services Training, LLC.
http://www.onthejobest.com

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Permalink Reply by Chris Piepenburg on May 30, 2008 at 8:41pm

One of the firefighters from neighboring community sent this to us. Thought it was a pretty interesting concept. Take a look at the right side of the second photo, you can see just how much is actual building.

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Permalink Reply by Gary Rauch on June 25, 2008 at 8:08pm

Well this not a dangerous building per se, but what if you pulled up to this structure and smoke was pushing out the second floor windows. Would you think that you had fire on the 2 or maybe a roof fire. BE SAFE!

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Permalink Reply by Nate DeMarse on June 26, 2008 at 5:21pm

Nice find Gary. Where is this one?

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