Floor compromise and isolated shift resulted in minor firefighter injuries and a near miss event in San Diego (CA)
Also on CommandSafety …
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- USFA Releases Civilian Fire Injuries in Residential Buildings (2008-2010) Topical Report – May 24, 2012
- Identifying, Establishing and Managing Collapse Zones – March 30, 2013
- High-rise fires cause quarter billion dollars of property damage a year – December 6, 2011
Chris,
I was the second BC on this fire. Interesting construction. It was originally a single story bungalow style house. You can see the original roof line on the edges. There was a major addition, with a small apartment added upstairs and an apartment added below. There was also a lot of house added to the rear, cantilevered over the canyon below. Of course, the fire started under the back of the house on the C/D corner a little more than a story below grade.
Both of the collapses were in that C/D corner and occurred when the floor cantilevered down. The entire support structure was burned out of the C/D corner, but there was a stem wall and decent support around 3 feet back. (Original foundation?) Obviously, after the first collapse, we kept the guys back, but obviously not far enough.
I also found one of the remaining beams had been cut to install a door and was supported by a 2×4 “column”. Nice.