PREPLANNING BUILDING HAZARDS
Editor`s note: For further reference, consult Building Construction for the Fire Service, Third Edition. Page numbers are included after each caption for your convenience.
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(Top) There is no such thing as a flat roof. There must be some pitch to drain the rain. The spacers show how this is accomplished. This makes a void through which fire spreads all under the roof, despite the sawn joist rafters, and can drop down into other occupancies. Firestopping is ineffective. Know your buildings. The building is your enemy.
(Ref. p. 215)
(Middle) In 1970, I was in Toronto and, as usual, was taking pictures. I noticed that a chase had been cut in the wall to accommodate the downspout. The alley was narrow, and someone had used his “common sense” to recess it and prevent damage from vehicles. He provided a “plane of weakness,” the same as the score mark on a sheet of gypsum board. There was no experience to back my publishing my observation in the first edition of Building Construction for the Fire Service in 1971. In 1973, the old Broadway Central Hotel in New York collapsed, causing several fatalities. A three-month investigation determined that an unauthorized chase had been cut into a wall to accommodate a drain. Water leaking from the drain washed out the sand lime mortar, and the collapse occurred. Experience in our field is blood, sweat, and tears. Competent preplanning and analysis of potential hazards are better options. In interpersonal relations, common sense is excellent. It has no place in technical problems, since it is only guessswork and the odds are even that the guess is wrong. (Ref. pp. 82, 164)
(Bottom) This balcony is suspended from the roof structure hidden by the ceiling. An attic “fire” could cause it to drop onto firefighters below. At the same time, the raging fire in the attic would probably drop on the firefighters. It may not be possible to even detect this hazard at the time of the fire. Educated preplanning is a must. Know your buildings. (Ref. pp. 48, 177-178)
FRANCIS L. BRANNIGAN, SFPE, a 55-year veteran of the fire service, began his fire service career as a naval firefighting officer in World War II. He`s best known for his seminars and writing on firefighter safety and for his book Building Construction for the Fire Service, Third Edition, published by the National Fire Protection Association. Brannigan is an editorial advisory board member of Fire Engineering.
