As a fire fighter, understanding building and construction are touted among to be of paramountcy. Other factors put into consideration are dating a building, determining fire severity from smoke factors and understanding the codes of construction tied to the buildings. Building codes provide a set of guidelines to meet while the building is in its design and implementation stage. In the United States, the two primary bodies in charge of developing building construction codes are International Code Council (ICC) and National Fire Protection Association (NFPA).
Type 1 building construction is the fire resistive buildings, normally high rise buildings; more than 75 feet tall. The walls, floors, partitions, roofs and columns should not be able to be consumed by fire. The design of the structure should be made in a fashion where the effects of fire are limited to a certain duration of time and not allow the spread of fire (ICCSafe, 2017). The structures used to make the building should be of poured concrete and steel members with fire protection coat.
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Type 2 building construction is found in commercial, remodeled or new buildings. The walls of these buildings need to be constructed with non-combustible material. The advantage of non-combustible material is that they can be used anywhere and need no further documentation concerning their properties to fire-safety (ICCSafe, 2017). The examples of non-combustible materials include Portland cement concrete, concrete having aggregates of gravel and sand (magnesite), pumice, gypsum concrete and expanded vesicular slags.
Ordinary buildings are mostly the ones at home or in residential office space. These buildings are either new or old. The code of construction is that the exterior walls be made of non-combustible material while the interior elements of the building should be made of any material (ICCSafe, 2017). New buildings need to have reinforced masonry and light weight roofing systems. Walls of masonry should be fitted with 2-hour fire rating.
Heavy timber buildings fall under type 4 category of building construction. Building codes in this category require that the exterior parts of the building be of non-combustible material while the interior elements of laminated or solid wood with concealed spaces (ICCSafe, 2017). Floors and roofs should be made of a heavy plan; use of 3*6 minimum heavy timber. To avoid collapse, the structure should be fitted with mass structural frames; use of minimum 8*8 heavy timber.
Wood farmed houses are the modern homes that are found in many regions in the United States. The code permits that the construction elements to be used be of any material permitted by the code (ICCSafe, 2017). The element of choice in type 5 construction is wood.
Fire prevention strategies lie in the face of construction and occupancy based on overall structural design. This is to ensure that the construction should prevent to the best extent the start or spread of fire. As such, buildings should be fitted with fire barriers (Della-Guistina, 2014). Fire barriers are continuous membranes for example floors or wall assembly, that are designed and constructed with specified fire resistance limit. This is important as it helps stop the spread of fire or smoke to other areas of the building. To ensure maximum prevention building should be fit with two hours rated fire wall.
To prevent fire, buildings should be fitted with automatic sprinklers system. There are two common types of sprinkler systems used; wet and dry automatic sprinkler systems. Wet sprinkler systems have ambient running water in the pipes. Dry sprinkler systems are used in areas where there are low temperatures (Della-Guistina, 2014). This is because low temperatures cause the water to freeze and that is why it is substituted with pressurized air followed with ambient water temperature. When the system actuates, pressurized air flows first then water flows in a span of not more than 60 seconds.
In buildings that are meant to be occupied with severe hazards such as flammable liquids, fitting pre-action and deluge system is a necessary step (Della-Guistina, 2014). A deluge system is an advanced design of the automatic sprinklers. Distinctly, they have open valves or sprinklers to allow the flow of water when the fire detectors actuate. Pre-action systems have closed heads or pipes filled with pressurized air. These systems are used in buildings where occupant’s store objects that are too valuable or irreplaceable and does not want them to be destroyed by water. The detection system in a pre-action system can be designed so that there can be no discharge of water in case there is a false fire alarm or in a situation where a sprinkler has encountered mechanical damage.
To prevent fire in new buildings, it is important that while under the construction or occupancy phase they should be fitted with stand pipes (Della-Guistina, 2014). Stand pipes are portable hydrants. They are designed to connect to fire hydrant thus gaining access to bulk water. They should be fitted in Class A or Class B places of assembly, buildings over three stories, buildings over thirty-five feet high or institutional buildings.
Basic provision for emergency power, light and system controls are a step towards fire prevention in building construction and occupancy (Della-Guistina, 2014). This are important since they help to stop any incidence of fire outage through electric outburst. The requirement of controls varies depending on the type of building and facility use.
Finally, in the realm of fire prevention, it is significant that all the structures installed during construction and occupancy be regularly maintained and inspected (Della-Guistina, 2014). This is because they are the work of humankind and thus not one hundred percent. Regular inspection and maintenance are important as this will help ensure that they are in the required state thus not fail to handle the issue at hand when it arises.
Due to the nature of work when under a fire rescue mission, fire ground accountability is a matter that should be handled with absolute strictness. As such, the use of personal accountability report (PAR) will help in identifying who is there and who is not (Kaplan Fire Dept., n.d). It will also help in identifying the fire fighters who need immediate attention as fire can cause other detrimental effects. Further, it will aid link puzzles to who is still missing and help develop a search rescue mission for those not there.
Utilizing technology in the advent of firefighting missions will help improve the safety and health of fire fighters. It will be futile not to acknowledge that the world is rapidly changing since the discovery and utility of technology. In this broad definition, technology has been able to encompass fire service. Fire thermal detectors should be used by fire fighters as they help improve sight in areas filled with smoke (Della-Guistina, 2014). This is because when firefighting smoke robs fire fighters of their vision, eventually blinding them further handicapping their movement. As such, use of fire thermal detector will help them maneuver easily through obstacles. Further, since they use heat differential it also easy to spot people in dark areas thus rescuing even the trap fighters will be an easy and safe task.
References
Della-Guistina, D.E. (2014). Fire Safety Handbook, Third Edition. CRC Press
ICCSafe. (2017) Retrieved 4 April 2017, from http://www2.iccsafe.org/states/newjersey/nj_building/pdfs/nj_bldg_chapter6.pdf
Kaplan Fire Department. Rapid Intervention/ Mayday: Standard Operations Guidelines
