Greg Havel

Greg Havel looks at the history of our understanding of the connection between soot and cancer and at how the fire service had dealt with the issue.

Greg Havel reviews some of the fundamental characteristics of trusses in building construction and points of concerns for firefighters operating in buildings that have trusses.

Greg Havel reviews some of the challenges firefighters may face when responding to rescue calls at steel buildings under construction.

Greg Havel looks at this feature of building construction and the potential hazards associated with it for firefighters.

Greg Havel reviews some details on the features of automatic fire sprinkler systems. 

Carbon monoxide (CO) is a colorless, odorless gas that is the product of incomplete combustion of carbon-based fuels. Greg Havel on what CO hazards firefighters might need to worry about when responding to construction sites.

Silica can be found almost anywhere on our world, as particles ranging in sizes from large rocks to sand grains to microscopic particles. Greg Havel looks at what this construction material ingredient may mean for firefighter health.

For his latest Construction Concerns, Gregory Havel returns to the subject of roofing materials to give firefighters a brief but important history lesson in their combustibility.  

For his latest Construction Concerns, Gregory Havel looks at these buildings that were designed as an inexpensive, lightweight, and noncombustible substitute for structures of other building code types.

"Modern building construction and remodeling can result in structures that can visually deceive us when we respond to an incident," writes Gregory Havel.