Safety in Burning Wooden Structures Essay

The National Institute of Standards and Technology developed a Simulator for Fire Dynamics which was employed to give information about fire within a family structure that led to the death of fire department captain. The fire spread to enclosed porch which was in the back of the structure form attic where it started. Temperatures and pressure built up in the enclosed porch. These elevated conditions caused the wood framed, steel-faced door to collapse around leading to path flow of high-velocity gas into the hallway where the captain was. He was exposed to rapid changes in the condition before he could get out. However, he was rescued but died later due to injuries (Weinschenk et al., 2016).

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The building codes of wooden structure consist of any materials permitted by international building codes can be used for interior and exterior walls. The wood frames should be treated to be fire retardant and the interior has laminated wood having no concealed spaces. These codes are adopted from international building codes. They were modified to include laminated woods (Lie, 1992).

Materials used in construction included gypsum board on the finished wall, the ceiling that covered the two floors and the lumber on the walls and the wood on the front and rear balcony. The structure which caught fire was made of a ceiled roof constructed with balloon frame. The interior construction consisted of wooden frames covered with gypsum board. Besides, the storey attic held the building's water heater. The structure had three different stairs, one on the front that connected the first and second floor; the second was in the rear which connected the first floor and second floor and the third which connected the first floor and the attic. The entry door could be accessed by use of either front or rear stairs.

Initial conditions of the second floor were within safety limit. A light glow was observed between enclosed porch and hallway indicating a fire in the confined balcony. Temperatures in the enclosed porch and the attic were much high. The high temperatures caused pressure build up which caused the wood-framed steel faced door on the second floor to fail. The steel faced door was crinkled near the knob where the lock is held.

NIST has observed similar situations where doors having this construction are in structures which have burned. The knob and the lock acted as a point of strength for the top part of the entrance to crinkle. When the interior of the door collapsed, the hot gas flow was established from the confined balcony with high pressure to the hallway of the structure which had low-pressure low pressure.

Conclusion

It is evident that fires having flow paths which changes contain serious hazard to firefighting personnel. Changing flow paths which are caused by pressure difference buildup leads to the collapse of internal structures like a part of the ceiling, windows and doors, (Ostman, 2002). In this scenario, the failure of the steel-faced door due to exposure to very high temperatures led flow path into the hallway area. Since the failure of internal structures at any time cannot be predicted, application of water into the burning structures areas from the outside before the start of internal operations is necessary to decrease dangers caused by heat thus critically improving the safety of the firefighting personnel and reduces possibility of the high-temperature gas flows within the burning structure.

References

Lie, T. T. (Ed.). (1992, January). Structural fire protection. American Society of Civil Engineers.

Ostman, B. (2002). National fire regulations in relation to the use of wood in European and some other countries 2002.

Weinschenk, C. G., Overholt, K. J., & Madrzykowski, D. (2016). Simulation of an attic fire in a wood frame residential structure, Chicago, IL. Fire technology, 52(6), 1629-1658.