Fire Engineering Training Community
The Professor: Building Construction
In this group, we'll discuss all things building construction. What are the lessons of recent fires? What have past fires taught us?. What are the developing trends in construction that will impact our ability to fight future fires?
"Disguised" Buildings
Just some thoughts on newer construction and size up. In watching buildings being constructed lately, I've noticed that the final product looks nothing like what is under the skin. It's not only trusses that are of concern. There are metal channel studs, foam filled pannels, laminated beams, brick faced facades, hurricane glass windows, etc. All of these components react differently to fire than their "traditional" counterparts. The question is, are we endangering ourselves by giving "traditional" size ups to buildings where we really don't know what is under the skin? Is a "woodframe residential" really a type V building anymore? How can we account for these new construction techniques and materials in our size up?
Chris Fleming
I hear you loud and clear on pre-planning, and for target hazards it's a great idea. Getting to the construction site and seeing how buildings are being put together is also great for preplanning and training. However, does a trussed-out, hurricane windowed, building with insulated pannels as walls still get called a "woodframe residential" with smoke coming out of it at 3:00 A.M. ? It's a super tight building with light weight structural members and heavy fire load and, as statistics show, very hazardous for firefighters. Will our members recognize this building as such? Especially if it's a new house in an old neighborhood. You may be able to pre-plan a development, but what about those "rogue" buildings? Same thing with buildings down town. Just because it has bricks showing on the outside doesn't make it ordinary construction. A lot of the newer commercial construction in our city is built more like "non-combustible, light weight" construction. Worse yet, it will be stuck into a block of "ordinary" constructed buildings. I guess the dialogue I was hoping to get going had more to do with accuracy in size up. Call the building what it is, if you know, and don't mislead the troops if you don't. There was an article a few years back about "hybrid" construction that talked about the problems encountered with these buildings, but have we adjusted our size up to deal with this? Thanks for getting involved, and let me know what you think and what you've experienced. Stay safe, bro!
Chris
Aug 27, 2008