Editor’s note: Frank Brannigan had been a longtime contributor to Fire Engineering ever since his first article appeared in 1948. His widely read columns, including The Ol’ Professor and Preplanning Building Hazards, were staples for firefighters nationwide and provided down-to-earth lessons about the hazards of building construction. At the time of his death last year, he was working with Fire Engineering Technical Editor Glenn Corbett on the 4th Edition of Brannigan’s Building Construction for the Fire Service (BBCFS). In tribute to Frank’s dedication to firefighter safety, we are pleased to offer The Professor, a continuation of his lifelong pursuit of firefighting lessons learned. Each installment will include a new feature, “History on Fire,” which uses images of historic fires to call attention to construction hazards of the past and the implications for today.
 1. Photos by author. |
Photo 1: Numerous firefighters have been injured and killed by falling down open elevator shafts after passing through the exterior windows of older multistory factories and warehouses. Fire codes require the use of SHAFTWAY placards on the building’s exterior walls at the shaft’s location.
 2. |
Photo 2: Many firefighters have never heard of “areas of rescue assistance,” locations at which disabled people are directed to assemble during a fire emergency in a multistory building. Although many of these areas of rescue assistance are actual rooms (as shown in this photo), some “areas” may actually be the floor landing inside of a stairwell. The operative words in this situation are “rescue assistance”-something you will provide. Look for a communication system between these areas and the building lobby.
 3. |
Photo 3: Although this older structure of ordinary construction along the Galveston, Texas, waterfront has been beautifully restored, the sliding metal-clad fire shutters on the building’s exterior are no longer functional-the cables and associated release devices have been removed. Fire shutters such as these were installed to automatically close when subjected to an exposure fire (from the adjacent piers and wharves in this case), preventing radiant heat from igniting the building interior. Today, building codes do not recognize such equipment.
 4. |
Photo 4: Erecting concrete “tilt walls” necessitates the use of temporary braces until the walls are tied into the roof structure, which holds the walls in place. This is a dangerous time for structures of this type (the other danger period is when the building and its roof are under fire attack). Be wary of inadequately braced walls, particularly under windy conditions.
 5. |
Photo 5: Three civilians were killed and a fire captain nearly lost his life in this six-story atrium office building in east Houston, Texas. This fire points out the absolute necessity of a complete, functioning sprinkler system to protect the building’s inhabitants-there is no redundancy in fire protection in these structures. Without the suppressing water from a sprinkler system, fire can spread unimpeded up through the atrium to the top of the building, blocking all access to stairwells, which are almost always within the atrium itself. Our model building codes do not require that the stairwells be located within the actual tenant spaces where they could be accessed quickly-they require that the tenants be forced to exit through a virtual chimney when sprinklers are not functioning. Code writers would be advised to study this fire, particularly the fact that the surviving occupants had to throw chairs through exterior windows and climb down aerial ladders.
 6. |
Photo 6: This “History on Fire” image calls attention to the continuing need to assess not only a building’s hazardous construction details but also the occupancy-specific hazards of particular buildings. This is P.T. Barnum’s “American Museum,” which burned in July 1865, the last significant fire for New York City’s volunteer fire department. Besides the oddities exhibited inside, the building was filled with wild animals that escaped onto Broadway, endangering firefighters and onlookers. One firefighter used his flathead ax to deal a deadly blow to a tiger that was menacing the assembled crowd.
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. Corbett is an FDIC Executive Advisory Board member. He has been in the fire service since 1978.
