While performing a preplan survey or conducting crew familiarization in your district, it’s wise to take a second look at brick buildings, particularly downtown. You might be surprised at what you ...

On May 18, 2023, a five-alarm fire broke out at a construction site in SouthPark. Two men died as a result of the blaze. As investigators work to uncover the cause of last week’s deadly construction ...

In the last two articles we looked at concrete and steel, two of the basic building blocks of commercial construction. This month we will discuss wood and how it is used in commercial construction. As ...

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Wood-frame construction is permitted statewide in Florida and it’s a common choice for developers, even when it comes to high-rise apartment buildings like the downtown complex ...

While no building is truly fireproof, construction materials and systems can make a building fire safe. Fire-resistive construction gives time to discover a fire, suppress it before it spreads and ...

Recently, a major fire raced through the AvalonBay at Edgewater apartment community in New Jersey, destroying several hundred units and displacing the residents of the luxury development in the middle ...

Post and beam and timber frame are both beautiful methods of building but most people think of them as one and the same. Although they are similar, there are subtle differences between them. Both are ...

The recent push for larger and taller wood structures may seem like an architectural fad—plenty of hype, but only a few dozen completed projects globally. Concrete and steel still rule the world of ...

In last month’s column (FireRescue, August 2009, “Warning Signs,” p. 116), I discussed two fundamental subjects that every fire department should cover in its training programs: fire behavior and ...

In Puerto Rico, a U.S. Caribbean island exposed to both hurricanes and earthquakes, it is estimated that over half of all commercial and residential construction is constructed informally. While this ...