Essentials of Firefighting (4th Edition)
Chapter 3-Building Construction
Lecture Notes
Major Pennington-5/17/99
- Planning for a safe and effective fire attack
- To alert FF to potential construction hazards
- Understand the effect of fire
- To alert FF to effects of fire and fire suppression in building construction
- Based on 1996 BOCA standard and NFPA 1001
- Type I Construction
- fire resistive
- compartmentation
- Type II Construction
- noncombustible and limited combustible
- fire resistance rating on all materials
- failure of roof likely (flat built-up roofs)
- Type III Construction
- ordinary
- smallest dimension wood
- hazards reduces by fire stops
- concealed spaces
- Type IV Construction
- heavy timber
- smallest dimension of wood is 8 inches in diameter
- exposure protection problems with high heat production
- Type V Construction
- wood-frame
- balloon-frame pre 1950
- platform wood frame after 1950
- single family residences
- WALLS
- load bearing = holding weight of structure
- non-load bearing = not holding weight of building
- party = load bearing; supports 2 adjacent structures
- cantilever = secures at one end; fire wall
- veneer = decorative (brick, rock, stone)
- Scene assessment
- built-in fire protection
- type of roof design
- types of doors and windows
- age of building
- building height
- ventilation characteristics
- type of construction
- construction materials
- egress and ingress paths
- security measures
- modifications (add-ons)
- Fire hazards related to construction
- heavy fire
- content loading
- combustible furnishings/finishes
- wood shake shingles
- wood frame, floors, ceilings
- large open spaces
- lightweight truss construction
- buildings being constructed, renovated, demolished
- Type IV-Heavy Timber
- large amount of combustible materials
- toxic gases
- fire spread
- exposures
- burn fast and collapse quickly (churches, common attics)
- Lightweight trusses fail within 5-10 minutes
- Renovation, Demolition, New Construction
- exposed wood frame
- doors and windows not installed
- exits blocked
Construction Loads
Major Pennington-5/17/99
Designed Load
Load that the building designer anticipated and planned for
Undesigned Load
Load that the building designer did not anticipate or plan for
Environmental Load
Expected weight of wind, snow, earthquake, and gravity
Contents Load
Weight of persons and weight of the building contents
Materials Load
Expected weight of materials used and any permanent attachment
Concentrated Load
Applied to a relatively small area (snow accumulation)
Distributed Load
Applied to a relatively large area evenly
Dead Load
Weight of the building in any part of the building which is attached or built-in
Live Load
Any load that is not permanently attached and may vary ( calculated by simple addition; estimated)
Static Load
Relatively unchanging load
Impact Load
Load in motion when it is applied (FF on roof)
Suspended Load
Held in place by attachment by something above it (suspended ceiling)
Axial Load
Passes through the center of mass of the supporting element perpendicular to the cross-section
Eccentric Load
Perpendicular to the cross-section of the supporting element that does not pass through the center of mass
Torsional Load
Parallel to the cross-section of the supporting member which does not pass through the long axis