Tag Archives: building construction

Here's a quick one on the importance of preplanning and getting out in your district. First, VCSing stands for Various Courses and Speeds. It might not be the politically correct definition, but if you don't get out in your district more often than not you will miss what's going on.

A cement mixer punched through a parking deck. The Toms River TRT responded to shore the deck prior to a crane lifting the mixer out.

The next few paragraphs and pictures are from Andrew Brassard. The prop he built to talk about fire behavior worked great. Check it out and talk about the stages of fire with your crew. What are you looking for when, where, and why as you crawl into each building.

The sign on the door states "Emergency access only. To be used by local fire department." The only way to access this door from the outside is via extension ladders due to limited access and an overhang.

During a recent company training we pre-planned a local strip-mall. When we were looking at the back of the building we noticed that the mortar holding the bricks together at the bottom of the parapet wall was missing.

FF Gadd took a couple pictures of a strip mall that is getting a bit of a face lift. We don't always get a chance to see the inside guts of overhangs and facades, so be sure to take advantage if an opportunity like this happens in your area.

We've been on a little roll with lightweight construction lately. We hope you are getting out into your buildings that are under construction and even those that are already up and running.

He mentioned that the construction is similar and it is sprinklered. He also said that there is a 2" layer of lightweight mortar/concrete covering each floor deck. He suggests that it may be another fire stop

Dave Walsh is on fire forwarding some good training materials this week. If you get a chance check out the SUNY Dutchess Fire Science Program on Facebook. For this post we simply linked the new bowstring truss interim operating procedure out of the FDNY.

This is a picture of a piece of wood timber that is being used as a column to support the floor system from the basement below at a local watering hole.