A residential home was destroyed by fire that had originated in the attic in the vicinity of a propane furnace vent. An ACS engineer investigated the fire. After ruling out electrical systems in the area of origin, it was determined that the propane furnace had been venting into the attic space rather than externally from … More From the Archives: House Fire #1
Being that humans are creatures of habit, an uneven stairwell challenges users, even those grown familiar with asymmetries in construction. The most critical components of a stairwell to avoid becoming a tripping or slipping hazard include a decent (and uniform) tread and riser value. In the case of International Building Code specifications, this is 11 … More Stairwells and the Codes
As documented in “ATLANTA BRIDGE COLLAPSE: What burned under the I-85 overpass?” by Richard Elliot and Rikki Klaus of wsbtv, the material stored under the I-85 bridge for 10 years was High Density Polyethylene. As I discuss what that means fire-safety-wise, I’ll be generally talking about polyethylene. Polyethylene is constructed from the combination of ethylene … More Understanding The I-85 Fire