Improving Fire Safety by Understanding the Fire Performance of Engineered Floor Systems and Providing the Fire Service with Information for Tactical Decision Making
Open accessAbstract
This research project was a collaboration of several research organizations, product manufacturers and fire service representatives to examine hazards associated with residential flooring systems to improve firefighter safety. Funding for this project was provided through the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Grant Program. The main objective of this study was to improve firefighter safety by increasing the level of knowledge on the response of residential flooring systems to fire. Several types (or series) of experiments were conducted and analyzed to expand the body of knowledge on the impact of fire on residential flooring systems. The results of the study have been prepared to provide tactical considerations for the fire service to enable improved decision making on the fire scene. Experiments were conducted to examine several types of floor joists including, dimensional lumber, engineered I-joists, metal plate connected wood trusses, steel C-joists, castellated I-joists and hybrid trusses. Experiments were performed at multiple scales to examine single floor system joists in a laboratory up through a full floor system in an acquired structure. Applied load, ventilation, fuel load, span and protection methods were altered to provide important information about the impact of these variables to structural stability and firefighter safety. There are several tactical considerations that result from this research that firef…
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A thermal imager may not clearly show the hazard level of a post-flashover basement fire.
“• May not provide clear information on the level of hazard to a thermal imager.”
From Fire fighter falls through floor and dies at residential structure fire - Ohio. (2017) · cites this paper as Kerber et al. 2012
During sounding, a floor over a post-flashover basement fire may withstand a tool strike yet fail under the weight of one or more fire fighters.
“• May hold up to a strike from a tool during sounding but may not be able to carry the weight of a fire fighter, or fire fighters [Kerber et al. 2012;Madrzykowski and Kent 2011].”
From Fire fighter falls through floor and dies at residential structure fire - Ohio. (2017) · cites this paper as Kerber et al. 2012
Experiments show that post-flashover basement fires, even when floor supports begin losing structural integrity, may not create high heat on the floor above.
“Experiments have shown that post-flashover basement fires, even after starting to lose the structural integrity of the floor supports: • May not generate high heat conditions on the floor above.”
From Fire fighter falls through floor and dies at residential structure fire - Ohio. (2017) · cites this paper as Kerber et al. 2012
Cited by
Sorted by citations
- Authors
- UL Firefighter Safety Research Institute, Kerber, S., Madrzykowski, D., Dalton, J., & Backstrom, R.
- Published
- 2012-03-01
- OpenAlex
- W4205734646
- Cited by
- 8
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2024: 1 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 1 · 2018: 2 · 2017: 1 · 2015: 1
- Type
- report
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- figshare.com
- Licence
- cc-by-sa
- Locations
- Figshare (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Civil and Structural Engineering › Fire effects on concrete materials
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Safety, Risk, Reliability and Quality › Fire dynamics and safety research
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › Occupational Therapy › Occupational Health and Performance
- Keywords
- firefighter safety, I-joists, wood trusses, dimensional lumber, structural stability, tactical decision-making, fuel load, ventilation, bearing capacity
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