The primary focus of assisted-living facilities is to provide care for elderly persons who can no longer maintain independent-living standards. Their facilities are typically commercial construction with a residential design element. Fire and life-safety concerns are a priority that can be made more difficult by the added challenge of ensuring accessibility for mobility-challenged persons. In some cases, a balanced approach is used when more stringent codes are required for the addition of a skilled nursing facility.

Sections 707.14.1, 909.20.5, and 1004.3.2.1 of the 2003 Intl. Building Code (IBC) require fire-rated smoke barriers to prevent the migration of smoke from the elevator shafts to the fire-rated egress corridors of a building. In a fire- or smoke-related event, elevator shafts tend to act like chimneys, allowing smoke to migrate from the fire’s origin to upper floors and endanger the lives of occupants or persons using the egress routes.

John Donelan, retired chief fire marshal for the California Office of Statewide Planning and Development (OSHPD), explains, “Several potential problems occur when a separate elevator lobby is designed. Lobbies present a hazard to building occupants because, during a fire, it creates a smoke filled area that someone could accidentally enter. These openings typically are not maintained or functional due to change in building use and tenant improvements.”

The use of fire sprinklers has not been documented to be an effective method of stopping or slowing the spread of smoke (Building Safety Journal, April 2006). Architect Anthony Loscavio with Devenney Group LTD. in Phoenix faced the following obstacles when designing a multi-level, senior assisted-living residence combined with a skilled-nursing facility:

1. The design of separate elevator lobbies restricted the clear corridor egress width.
2. A separate elevator lobby decreased the owner’s usable space.
3. Projections of the doors and hardware presented obstacles and potentially hazardous conditions for mobility-impaired individuals.
4. IBC codes restrict projections no more than 7 inches into corridor. (Conventional fire-door assemblies have difficulty meeting this compliance issue.)
5. Projections of the doors and hardware created compliance issues for the access of emergency care first responders and the routine movement of wheelchair and litter-bed patients to, from, and inside the skilled nursing facility portion of building.
6. Conventional fire-door assemblies create long-term maintenance issues for the owner.
7. Conventional fire-door assemblies made it difficult to maintain continuity of architectural design.

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HOLLAND PARTNER GROUP/SIXTH AND BIXEL: 

One portion of Holland Partner Group’s $200 million City West project has already opened: The Mint, a 42-apartment redevelopment of a 1923 medical building, debuted in May, and is now 85 occupied, according to the developer.

Crews are now building out the interior of a pair of seven-story buildings with a combined 606 apartments. A first phase of 295 units will begin leasing next May, with the remaining 311 apartments opening in mid-summer, according to Southern California division head Tom Warren.

The development will have 25,000 square feet of retail and commercial space, much of it fronting Sixth Street. The designer is Togawa Smith Martin. Rents for the studio to three-bedroom apartments will range from $1,500 to slightly under $4,000. Amenities will include rooftop decks, a large fitness center, a pool, a public plaza and 300 trees.

Photo by Gary Leonard

Nearly three months later, the fire at the Colorado Springs Airport has been ruled accidental.

Investigators say a construction crew working on the roof started it. They were using propane torches to apply tar and the roof caught fire.

With heightened security at airports worldwide, the fire department says this investigation needed the extra time.

“That’s why it takes longer than a typical we figure it was a cigarette and it burned up the side of the house. This is something that is on the mind of people in our country and around the world. So it’s important and make sure there is no investigation or criminal act,” CSFD Capt. Brian Vaughan said.

Repairs are expected to be finished in time for the busy Thanksgiving travel weekend. The repairs were expected to cost $5.6 million dollars. CSFD firefighters responded to a three-alarm fire at the Colorado Springs Airport overnight. Photo from KKTV.

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Last year a large blaze has ripped through one of the largest residential buildings in the world, the Torch Tower in Dubai. Flames shot up the side of the skyscraper, sending debris tumbling from the 337m (1,106 ft) structure.

By daybreak, the building had been left badly damaged and vehicles in the vicinity destroyed. The government media office said “cooling operations were under way”.

The Torch Tower was damaged by an earlier blaze in 2015, which resulted in the evacuation of hundreds of people. That fire, and other recent blazes in the city, spread quickly because of external cladding, according to fire engineering consultancy Tenable Dubai.

But they did not result in fatalities because the design and construction of the buildings allowed firefighters to battle the blaze and residents to evacuate via smoke-free, fire-free safety zones, the group says.

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The fire occurred in Grenfell Tower, Kensington, North London, on the 14 June 2017 with London Fire Brigade recording a call at 00:54 and being in attendance 6 minutes later.

The 24 storey building (23 stories above ground) was public housing apartments with some other non-residential accommodation.

200+ firefighters with 40+ appliances attended and carried out multiple rescues of 60+ persons.

Conditions were described as extremely arduous with heavy smoke and heat restricting attempts to proceed upwards in the single staircase building.

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