BY GLENN P. CORBETT
The Deutsche Bank building in New York (photo 1), as seen after the disastrous fire on August 2007 that killed two firefighters. Note the tremendous amounts of plywood sheeting used to keep asbestos and heavy metals inside the contaminated building that is under demolition. This plywood created an enormous “fuel load in the sky,” used as an exterior containment barrier as well as inside to create mazelike decontamination compartments. This is a wake-up call to environmental officials who push the use of plywood during the decontamination of a buildinga very dangerous practice, especially in a high-rise.
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Photo 2: At first glance, this looks like a log cabin. On closer inspection, however, the logs are actually sections of vinyl siding made to look like wood. What you see is not always what you get in building construction.
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Photo 3: This month’s “History on Fire” features the Great Baltimore Fire of 1904. This conflagration triggered calls for many fire safety improvements, including the national standardization of fire hose threads (we’re still waiting), the call for a national building code (created in 1905), and the first fire resistance testing procedure in the United States (1907). Ironically, we still use essentially the same “time-temperature” curve today that was developed for this test standard in the 1920s. Many have called for this testtoday known as American Society for Testing and Materials Standard E-119to be replaced by a more modern, realistic test.
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Photo 4: Sometimes known as “toothpick towers,” buildings such as this five-story residential structure (four stories of wood frame atop a single story of noncombustible construction) present a tremendous fire hazard while under construction. Until the gypsum board and siding are put in place, a fire in this building could become a conflagration breeder in this urban environment.
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Photo 5: An arrangement of a set of doors in the middle of a building like this (three doors swinging in each direction) usually indicates the presence of a “horizontal exit.” These doors are part of a two-hour-rated wall that splits a floor into halves. They are installed in large floor areas to meet the code-restricted maximum “travel distance” when stairwells or exterior exits are too far from some portions of the floor. Look for a 2 1/2-inch hose connection at these walls in buildings equipped with standpipes.
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Photo 6: This is a spray-on “fireproofed” steel structural member in an open parking garage. The fireproofing is obviously useless, as it has fallen off in large sections. Such fireproofing cannot be exposed to the elements for extended periods of time without being compromised. The fireproofing in this structure was later replaced in this relatively new building with a rigid fire-resistive assembly.
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GLENN P. CORBETT, PE, is an assistant chief of the Waldwick (NJ) Fire Department, an associate professor of fire science at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City, and a technical editor for Fire Engineering. He previously held the position of administrator of engineering services with the San Antonio (TX) Fire Department. Corbett has a master of engineering degree in fire protection engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts and is pursuing a Ph.D. in public administration from Rutgers University. He authored two chapters on fire prevention/protection in The Fire Chief`s Handbook, Fifth Edition (Fire Engineering Books, 1995) and is the coauthor of the late Francis L. Brannigan’s Building Construction for the Fire Service, 4th Edition.
