Operational Safety Considerations at Ordinary and Heavy Timber Constructed Occupancies

The recent structural collapse of a vacant five story building in the Tribeca section of New York City (lower Manhattan) brings to light the operational and safety issues affecting buildings of Ordinary (Type III) or Heavy Timber (Type IV) classified construction.

There are a number of excellent lessons learned from Near Miss Reports found on the National Firefighter Near Miss Reporting System. The NFF NMRS’s 2009 calendar has a monthly theme related to a near miss event report and is supported by training and informational resources that provide expanded opportunities for training and insights. The Annual Near Miss Reporting calendar is made possible through the support of FireRescue Magazine and Elsevier.

The theme for May is Structural Collapse. I developed a power point program and a supporting white paper that provides Operational and Safety Considerations for Buildings of Ordinary and Heavy Timber Construction. Check out the resources and download the program, it'll provide you with some good safety insights and operational considerations.

http://www.firefighternearmiss.com/data/Resources/Calendar/NMR%20Ma...

http://www.firefighternearmiss.com/data/Resources/Other/MayModulePo...

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Permalink Reply by Ben Waller on May 1, 2009 at 11:33pm

Chris,

The best way to handle these is using car bomb survival techniques...BSE...in other words Be Somewhere Else.

Multistory collapses in non-concrete buildings are a tremendous problem.
In addition to the other structural collapse hazards, these tend to be like a big pile of pick-up-sticks where moving one stick can shift twenty others. These tend to be require that you work the pile from the top and do stick-by-stick and brick-by-brick excavation.

It's almost easier to breach heavy concrete floors and turn tunnel rat.

Ben

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Permalink Reply by Christopher J. Naum, SFPE on May 1, 2009 at 11:36pm

You've got that right brother....my estimation is that you'll be seeing alot more collapse and failures around the country as these "Old" structures continue to age, deteriorate and become altered, renovated or vacant....better brush up on collapse rescue ops and NFPA 1670.....

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Permalink Reply by Ben Waller on May 2, 2009 at 7:29am

In the spirit of Alfred E. Neuman..."What, me worry? I just bring Mick Mayers. to my structural collapses."

Operational Safety Considerations at Ordinary and Heavy Timber Constructed Occupancies

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