PREPLANNING BUILDING HAZARDS
FRANCIS L. BRANNIGAN
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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This is a post-tensioned concrete building under construction. The workers erecting the falsework for the next floor are standing on a concrete slab not yet connected to the columns. It is supported only by wooden jack-posts. The plastic enclosure tells us the area below is being heated, usually by propane cylinders feeding open-flame salamanders. A fire involving the falsework would collapse the floor above. When it hits the floor below, it almost certainly will collapse it; and progressive collapse will end in the basement. Will you be calling for USAR teams to recover crushed firefighters? Post-tensioned concrete under construction is extremely dangerous. (Ref. pp. 338-39, 347)
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Look at the overhead of this garden apartment bedroom closet. The maintenance access to the attic is a typical household attic ladder, with thin plywood replacing gypsum board. Any fire in the closet will involve the attic immediately–so much for the vaunted “sheathed with rated gypsum board” of the supposedly “protected combustible” building. (Ref. p. 229)
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New furniture is being delivered. Newly delivered furniture was the arsonist`s fuel in the Du Pont Plaza Hotel fire in San Juan, Puerto Rico, that cost 97 lives. Be aware of any sign indicating that the hotel is being refurbished. Sometimes entire floors are closed off to serve as a furniture warehouse. Will the capacity of your initial attack line be adequate? (Ref. p. 498)
FRANCIS L. BRANNIGAN, SFPE, a 52-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.
