Type I Fire Resistive Firefighter

At the time of the MGM Grand Fire, it was not required that fire department personnel had to be part of the building construction plan review process. The fire department is now largely involved in the construction and plan review process before a building is built. Also, construction materials used are more fire resistant. Ventilation systems have also been improved, and are very helpful in removing the smoke, rather than allowing it to make its way to upper floors of a high rise structure, which was a large cause of loss of life in the MGM Grand fire due to smoke inhalation and carbon monoxide poisoning.

Firefighting has specific duties such as put out fires with specialized hoses and treat sick people and get them out of houses with burning buildings. It requires a lot of commitment and you will be forced to carry a person outside of a burning building and you must not be claustrophobic because you will be in a burning building with thick smoke trying to find somebody and you will get cramped by the smoke and debris. In this career this person need to be allowed to perform in the career with excellence and they need to be able to withstand heat and they need to be able to have the strength to be able to carry out a person in a burning building or any

Steel frame structures are made as the name suggest from steel, the material is strong and flexible. When weight is added it bends without cracking. Another characteristic of steel is that its plasticity or ductility, meaning that when force is added it won’t crack however it will lose shape therefore giving warning for people to evacuate the building. A disadvantage of steel is that is loses strength when subject to fire. Studies have shown that it can loose up- to half its strength when subject to fire, therefore making it imperative to cover the steel with boards or spray on.

This paper explores the different aspects in living a firefighter’s life. The topics that will be covered are the various types of technology when being a fireman, the different tactics you see on a day to day basis, the physical abilities one must be capable of, and the types of equipment used. The technology used today to help fight fires is extremely progressed and different than it was even just ten years ago. If it were not for these new inventions, communication would not be as easy and complex for any fire station. Firemen face different obstacles every day and have to be ready to jump right in with whatever the circumstance may be. Tactics such as

There are many areas in the fire service where potential lawsuits and liability can arise; some of these areas include, but are most definitely not limited to negligence, hazing, and not following the fire department’s SOPs/SOGs. As our society has changed, so has its expectations of those in emergency services—while many in the community may think of firefighters as the pinnacle of what an upstanding citizen must look like, there are countless moral and ethical pitfalls that firefighters can fall prey to and diminish the reputation of the fire service.

After the fire, new laws were enforced for new construction to use fireproof materials. An example of new materials used for construction included brick, stone, marble, and limestone. (Nat Geo Sites) To keep the materials from moving, builders started using mortar to keep buildings structurally intact. Terra cotta clay, another fireproof material, became popular because it was less costly. (Nat Geo Sites) For a stronger structure and another way for buildings to be fireproof, frames of buildings would be made out of steel. For an event like The Chicago Fire to never happen again, these fireproofing methods in new construction helped prevent future catastrophic events.

The paper I am doing an overview on is Fire Escape Codes In Historic Buildings by Jeff T. Johnson. Johnson focuses on a town in Rhode Island called Pawtucket. In 1793, America’s first textile mill was built, but decades later there were 100 other mills constructed. By the 1940’s, most of these mills were abandoned and out of shape until Rhode Island passed it’s Historic Preservation Tac Credit. The reason for this shift in the 1940’s was because after World War II, textile mills moved south for cheaper labor. This then turned these old mills into residential homes relying on adequate fire escapes. Then Johnson brings up Richard Moe who is the President of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. He brings up

The change to engineered lumber also means less wood to burn resulting structure collapse much sooner, risking the lives of unaware firefighters. In addition to building techniques, improved technologies have also given rise to many engineered materials that replace traditional materials found in home furnishings such as cotton and wool. Today, homes are constructed and filled with furnishings that have a petroleum base such as plastics and polycarbonates. These engineered materials burn many times hotter and faster than traditional building materials or what is considered legacy furnishings. In an experiment conducted at the NIST laboratory, two same size rooms, filled with matching furnishings. One room was filled with modern home furnishings while the second room was filled with furnishings made of cotton, wool, and solid lumber. Both rooms were ignited simultaneously, the modern room burned rapidly and flashed over in approximately eight minutes whereas the legacy room took twenty minutes to reach flashover. When we consider the length of time to call 911, take the call, dispatch units, drive to the scene, tag a hydrant and pull a line most likely takes longer than eight minutes, the timing until flashover is critical for victims and firefighters. Additionally, there is a significant difference in temperatures generated between the modern and legacy rooms. The legacy room high temperature reached approximately four hundred degrees before

Many fire service personnel that have fifteen or twenty years of service have seem many things change over time. One radical change is the way fires consume structures today when compared structures years ago, these fires have be classified as modern and legacy fires. When responding to a modern construction fire versus a legacy fire, does it change how we fight these fires? Well the answer to that is simply yes! Modern construction physiognomies have greatly changed to accommodate the comfort of the homeowner, which is not firefighter friendly. In modern construction home the floor plans are larger in size to give more living space. As the living spaces grow the footprint of the residence increases as well. As the word modern leads to occupants thinking comfort, when truthfully causes disadvantageous consequences for the fire service with open geometrics, new construction materials, and also include an increased fire load. All these construction advantages only lead to faster propagation of the fire, as well decreases the amount of time for a flashover to occur. Modern construction has led to hasty changes in fire dynamics, which at the same time decreases the amount of time to escape to safety. The structural collapse time is greater since the amount of time as been lessened

The fire rating for 1970’s comparted to present time was a critical factor in fire protection that impacted the structural integrity of the building at the time of impact. The lack of fireproofing inside the towers had a big impact on the fire-rating of the building. There were 4 types of fire-proofing used during the construction phase of the World Trade Center. Some were used from the ground up until the 37th-38th floor on the North Tower. Some were missed with fireproofing on the trusses that should have been applied. Other things such as ductwork, conduits, and piping were installed before fireproofing was applied. So many things were missed during the fireproofing stage because of the code enforcements weren’t in place at the time of the

“After the 1906 earthquake, a local committee of the American Society of Civil Engineers urged the city to strengthen its building code. … Willis lamented the ‘unsafe building conditions,’ which he claimed were ‘well known to architects, engineers, and other intelligent citizens’” (Steinberg 36). This relates to the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire because there were very unsafe working conditions, and, according to New York law, the design of the fire escapes were left up to the building inspectors, and as a result, most were poorly built

Lightweight construction has been used in building construction for more than thirty-five years. Fire fighters have been dealing with the dangers of this type of construction since it was developed. Lightweight construction is generally considered to be either wood frame or steel building materials, where the roof and/or floor supporting systems are constructed of lightweight prefabricated materials. The main problem with lightweight construction is the decreased load carrying capability and stability of the manufactured members under fire conditions.

Within the United States there are five different types of construction. Firefighters need to know and understand each of them. Every construction type have fire resistant weaknesses, these weaknesses will result in fire spreading in the building. If firefighters understand how the fire will spread, then understand how to extinguish the fire faster and more importantly firefighters are better protected from injuries or worse. In America all buildings are associated with one of the types of construction, identified by Roman number. The building codes are, fire resistant (type I), combustible (type II), ordinary construction (type III), heavy-timber construction (type IV) and wood-frame construction (type V). It is important to remember that all buildings are not the same. Each different building construction type will burn much differently than the others do. In order to be able to size-up a building 's fire hazard, firefighters need to be able to understand a buildings contents and construction. Materials that are stored inside of the building and also materials used to construct the building will both fuel the fire. Also know that if a structure is vacant or if the contents in the building are not combustible, the main fire hazard is the building. The scale of the construction types are scaled according to the fire load of combustible material that was used for its construction. A fire resistant building is constructed with least amount of combustible materials, and a

In order to evaluate common fire hazards within a building and the risks presented by these, it is essential to have an understanding of where fires start, and what causes them in varying occupancy types. The best process to fulfil this aim is to review existing statistical data. Existing data is a vital tool in analysing areas or functions of a building which have the greatest risk to occupants. In particular, those functions or areas of a building having higher fatality rates historically in buildings of a similar type should be treated with special consideration (i.e. Class 2, Kitchen). It is important to be familiar with these statistics as they play a key role in predicting outcomes of future fires. Using this knowledge, fire safety engineers can identify patterns and high risk factors; and apply appropriate building fire safety systems in an attempt to reduce fire

Many times, risks faced by contractors exist at no fault of their own. That is, in some cases the contractor is bound by a design that places specific hazards on the construction site. Designers who are cognizant of and responsive to their effort on construction safety would aid in making jobsites safer for construction workers (Gambatese et al, 1997). Situations such as these led the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health to create a safe design concept, prevention through design. Prevention