NFPA Journal - November/December 2012 - (Page 50)
FEATURE
FIRE SAFETY + GREEN BUILDINGS
IT’S GREEN. IT’S SUSTAINABLE. IT HELPS REDUCE YOUR CARBON FOOTPRINT. BUT DO YOU KNOW HOW IT BEHAVES WHEN SUBJECTED TO FIRE?
An update on green buildings and fire safety
BY FRED DURSO, JR.
ILLUSTRATION BY DAN PAGE
S
ONLINE
Visit nfpa.org/foundation to download the Fire Protection Research Foundation report Safety Challenges of Green Buildings and learn more about the results of the Fire Safety Design and Sustainable Buildings Symposium.
NFPA CODES REFERENCED IN THIS ARTICLE
NFPA 1, Fire Code NFPA 70®, National Electrical Code® NFPA 101®, Life Safety Code® NFPA 5000®, Building Construction and Safety Code®
hortly before 2 a.m. on May 1, Thomas Sullivan, Jr., was startled from sleep by the yells of his father, Thomas, Sr.: “The house is on fire! Get out, get out!” Thomas Jr., 20, opened his bedroom door and encountered heavy smoke. He began crawling along an upstairs hallway of his family’s three-story home in Carmel, New York, and tumbled down the stairway leading to the front entrance. The stained-glass windows surrounding the door were illuminated by an orange glow from outside. He grabbed the doorknob, which was searing hot and burned his palm. Retreating, he ran through the family room and the kitchen before exiting the house through the two-car garage. When he finally got outside, though, his family wasn’t there. Sullivan could only watch as the fire intensified despite efforts by firefighters to control it. According to an investigation of the fire, the walls of the home were built with oriented strand board (OSB), a type of structural engineered wood panel that is considered a more economical and sustainable alternative to traditional plywood panels. About 30 minutes after the fire had been reported, the walls buckled and the roof came crashing down. Still inside the 3,000-square-foot property, built in 1999, was Sullivan’s father, a police captain in Larchmont, New York, along with his mother and two teenaged sisters. Their causes of death
50
NFPA JOURNAL NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2012
http://www.nfpa.org/foundation
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of NFPA Journal - November/December 2012
NFPA Journal - November/December 2012
Contents
First Word
In a Flash
Perspectives
Firewatch
Research
Heads Up
Structural Ops
In Compliance
Buzzwords
Outreach
Electrical Safety
Wildfire Watch
Past + Present
Easy Being Green?
Pressure Points
2011 Large-Loss Fires
2011 Firefighter Injuries
Section Spotlight
What’s Hot
Looking Back
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