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Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire New York City 1911

Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire New York City 1911

The Triangle Factory Fire http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/trianglefire/ This site contains information about the March 25, 1911 fire in the New York City factory of the Triangle Shirtwaist Company and the resulting investigations and reforms. The fire killed 146 immigrant workers, most of whom were women. The materials include original documents, oral histories, and photographs held by Cornell […]

Structural Collapse: The Hidden Dangers of Residential Fires

Structural Collapse: The Hidden Dangers of Residential Fires

Structural Collapse: The Hidden Dangers of Residential Fires  Oct 1, 2009 Originally Published in FireEngineering.com, All Rights Reserved By James M. Dalton, Robert G. Backstrom, and Steve Kerber Educational Objectives 1 Gain an understanding of the behavioral differences between solid wood joist and lightweight wood structural members under fire attack. 2 Gain an understanding of […]

Positive Pressure Ventilation Research

Positive Pressure Ventilation Research

Positive Pressure Ventilation The objective of this NIST research is to improve firefighter safety by enabling a better understanding of structural ventilation techniques, including positive pressure ventilation (PPV) and natural ventilation, and to provide a technical basis for improved training in the effects of ventilation on fire behavior by examining structural fire ventilation using full-scale fire experiments with and […]

NIST Wind Driven Fires Programs

NIST Wind Driven Fires Programs

Wind Driven Fires Wind blowing into the broken window of a room on fire can turn a “routine room and contents fire” into a floor-to-ceiling firestorm. Historically, this has led to a significant number of firefighter fatalities and injuries, particularly in high-rise buildings where the fire must be fought from the interior of the structure. […]

Impact of Ventilation on Fire Behavior in Legacy and Contemporary Residential Construction

Impact of Ventilation on Fire Behavior in Legacy and Contemporary Residential Construction

Impact of Ventilation on Fire Behavior in Legacy and Contemporary Residential Construction Impact of Ventilation on Fire Behavior in Legacy and Contemporary Residential Construction Under the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Assistance to Firefighter Grant Program, Underwriters Laboratories examined fire service ventilation practices as well as the impact of changes in modern house […]

Wind Driven Fires

Wind Driven Fires

  A million dollar Baltimore County, Maryland  home was destroyed Sunday December 13, 2009  by a fire that tore through the 4,700-square-foot structure with such intensity that firefighters were forced to battle the flames from the exterior. Shortly after 21:00 hours, Baltimore County Fire Dispatch alerted crews for Fire Box 50-2 at 12607 Nancy Lee Court […]

Attic Fires in Residential Buildings Report

Attic Fires in Residential Buildings Report

The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) U.S. Fire Administration (USFA) has recently issued a special report examining the characteristics of Attic Fires in Residential Buildings (PDF, 884 Kb). Developed by USFA’s National Fire Data Center, the report is based on 2006 to 2008 data from the National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS). According to the report:  […]

Underwriters Laboratories  Structural Stability of Engineered Lumber in Fire Conditions

Underwriters Laboratories Structural Stability of Engineered Lumber in Fire Conditions

  Structural Stability of Engineered Lumber in Fire Conditions Structural Stability of Engineered Lumber in Fire Conditions Under a U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Assistance to Firefighter Grant, Underwriters Laboratories in collaboration with the Chicago Fire Department, Michigan State University, and the International Association of Fire Chiefs completed a fire research study to enhance […]

It's not Lightweight Construction

It’s not Lightweight Construction

It’s not lightweight construction NFPA Journal, Jul/Aug 2009 by Earls, Alan R It’s what happens when lightweight construction meets fire. Two recent studies detail the relationship between fire and engineered wood construction assemblies-notably, that they burn quicker and fail faster than their dimensional lumber counterparts. What do the findings mean for the fire service, builders, […]

USFA Releases Provisional 2010 Firefighter Fatality Statistics

USFA Releases Provisional 2010 Firefighter Fatality Statistics

The United States Fire Administration (USFA) announced today there were 85 onduty firefighter fatalities in the United States as a result of incidents that occurred in 2010, a 6 percent decrease from the 90 fatalities reported for 2009. The 85 fatalities were spread across 31 states. Illinois experienced the highest number of fatalities (9). In […]

General Truss Construction Links

General Truss Construction Links

General Truss Construction Links   NAHB Research Foundation Inc The essential point is that it would be un reasonable to design in the superior structural integrity of truss – framed construction only to degrade it by weakening the studs http://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/documnts/pdf1982/ander82a.pdf Download SAINT LUCIE COUNTY FIRE DISTRICT Where the owner of the structure and the authority […]

Innovative Construction Products and Techniques-UK

Innovative Construction Products and Techniques-UK

 Innovative Construction Products and Techniques Published 7 January 2008 Type(s) Research and statistics, Reports and summaries Site Planning, building and the environment Product code 07BD04986 UK International Summary This is the final report due for the project, Innovative Construction Products and Techniques (ICPT). This project was commissioned under the Communities and Local Government Fire Safety Framework Agreement […]

Nothing Ordinary About It: 11 years ago, 3 firefighters perished in a seemingly routine residential structure fire

Nothing Ordinary About It: 11 years ago, 3 firefighters perished in a seemingly routine residential structure fire

Nothing Ordinary About It: 11 years ago, 3 firefighters perished in a seemingly routine residential structure fire Posted by Fire Rescue Magazine on December 22, 2010 on Firefighternation.com Nothing Ordinary About It 11 years ago, 3 firefighters perished in a seemingly routine residential structure fire On Dec. 22, 1999, Dave McNally, Nathan Tuck and Jason […]

Abandoned Cold Storage Warehouse Multi-Firefighter Fatality Fire (Worcester, MA - December 1999)

Abandoned Cold Storage Warehouse Multi-Firefighter Fatality Fire (Worcester, MA – December 1999)

Abandoned Cold Storage Warehouse Multi-Firefighter Fatality Fire (Worcester, MA – December 1999) USFA Technical Report Subject(s): Fire Prevention & Planning/Code Enforcement, Firefighter Casualties, Health and Safety, Incident Management  Media: Technical Report Series  Read Online/Download: Adobe Acrobat (PDF)/ Other Help PDF (1.0 Mb) Description: A technical review of the 1999 Worcester, MA fire that claimed six […]

NIST Report on Residential Fireground Field Experiments ISSUED

NIST Report on Residential Fireground Field Experiments ISSUED

Report-on-Residential-Fireground-Field-Experiments The NIST Firefighter Safety and Deployment Study; Titled- Report on Residential Fireground Field Experiements was recently issued. A copy of the report is attached. The report is also available for download at the NIST, HERE Report Abstract: Service expectations placed on the fire service, including Emergency Medical Services (EMS), response to natural disasters, hazardous materials […]