Research-Based Size-Up for Wood-Frame Apartment Buildings

The article talks more about, 'Cities and suburbs across the country have gone through phases of building construction and fire duty cycles in different building types. While the classical first-generation brick and mortar buildings of many cities have a nostalgic feel and well-documented fire duty history, the sprawls of high-density, wood-frame apartments that became the second generation of fire duty around the 1950s and onward continue to account for a large number of working fires every year. According to the U.S. Fire Administration, fires in these buildings account for close to 500 civilian deaths per year and close to 4,000 injuries, accounting for approximately $1.1B in property loss. Of course, we still get many fires in the first-generation masonry buildings but depending on the makeup of your first-due area, you may be more frequently involved in a different type of firefight, one involving two- to four-story wood-frame apartments. This is a common still-alarm area for many engine companies across the country and these buildings will account for many extremely challenging fires that crews arrive at on a regular basis. A fire in these buildings can be extremely difficult due to the rapid spread of fire both inside and on the exterior of the building combined with extremely high population densities and limited means of egress. It does not take much in these buildings for fire to spread rapidly into “the ways,” meaning the walkways, stairways, breezeways, and hallways that occupants need for egress, trapping them on their balconies or forcing them to jump.'