Tuesday, July 3, 2007
A Tale of Two Fires or a Roof and Contents
Click on picture to see raw video of Seaton Court fire in Leesburg, VA.One hour earlier, on Cherry Lane in Leesburg, firefighters went on the scene of a working fire in another two-story, single-family home. That fire also got up into the attic. But the first firefighters were able to make an interior attack. (Specifics on the fireground operations can be found here, on the Leesburg VFC website.)
First fire, on Cherry Lane. Picture from Leesburgfire.org.
In the first fire, the home is still standing. The second home is a pile of charred wood. Loudoun County Chief Fire Marshal Keith Brower believes one of the key reasons there was such a different outcome is that the second fire involved a newer home of lightweight construction. Not only was the house where the fire began destroyed, but 4 nearby homes had $60,000 worth of vinyl siding damage. One of the homes was as much as 150 feet away.
Clearly this isn't a scientific way of comparing new construction with old construction. It is just an illustration of the dilemma firefighters face each day. Brower talks about the whole timeline being compressed, with fires spreading more quickly and collapses happening earlier when lightweight construction is involved. It is why some Virginia firefighters have been referring to fires in these type of homes as, "A roof and contents".
Obviously this is nothing new for firefighters. Keith Brower was helping me try to illustrate this story for the general public. You can see our efforts here.
While it may not have helped in this case, because the fire appears to have started outside the home, Brower believes lightweight construction is as good a reason as any for residential sprinklers.
In 1985, not too far from where this second fire occurred, Keith and his colleagues gave me a close up demonstration of a residential sprinkler system. I used it as part of a special report I was working on called "Get Out Alive". Now, a dozen years later, Keith is one of those still trying to make residential sprinklers a reality in Virginia.
One way to get the point over about lightweight construction is to ask the question how do you start a fire in a fireplace. do you pile on big logs or 4X4s and try to light them?
or do you use small kindling wood?
Just point out when they answer the same princple applys in construction the smaller the material the quicker it will burn
Bert shaffner
: July 5, 2007 12:46 AM I agree that the 2 houses differ in how far advanced a fire can get due to 1 being old vs. the other being newer construction. Theres different scenarios like fire in a basement in light weight vs. fire on the 2nd floor of a lightweight const. home..The basement fire might burn through the first quicker and lessen the chances of an interior attack whereas the fire on the second floor is not going to burn downwards so no matter if the whole floor is off you can still put the fire out. Even if its thru the roof you can still put it out.. Nothing is gonna come down on you and even if something does it will be drywall or at the worst a 2x4..Too many departments see fire through the roof and have to hit it from the outside...Forget saving the homeowners belongings let alone doing a search....Billy Goldfeder might be your best bud but from my perspective the guy works for a department of 40 people and probably cant remember the last time he was even in a fire but he writes wonderful articles on the dangers of fire and how to protect firefighters. So if your one of these people that feed into articles wriiten by people like him then in my opinion your likely to be the ones to burn someones home to the ground..
: July 6, 2007 5:01 PM First of all thanks for the input. I read with interest your thoughts on the Lorton fire on TWD.
I think I wrote in the blog version this clearly was an unscientific comparison of 2 fires. It was meant as an illustration for the general public that their newer homes made of lighter components are more likely to burn a bit quicker. Burt Shaffner, who I worked with 30 years ago, in his comment above, uses the illustration of kindling.
As for firefighting tactics, the only point I made is that many departments, rightly or wrongly, are making the decision not to commit or pull out sooner. I would say that is accurate from what I have seen covering these fires.
I will be glad to let you and others use the forum to discuss tactics. And if you want to put your name to it, I would give you a chance as a guest columnist on this topic.
As for a more scientific view of this, I did see some of this put to the test at NIST, but mostly they were dealing with separation between single family homes of lightweight construction.
On the other matter, I am not here to endorse anyone's view. Just to pass them along with the perspective of a newsman who has covered fire departments for quite a while and spent a much smaller amount of time as a firefighter.
Statter
: July 6, 2007 8:01 PM Links to this post:
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