A 3-alarm fire which broke out on the 14th floor of a public housing high-rise in a heavily immigrant neighborhood of Minneapolis early Wednesday killed five people and injured three, according to reports.
FOX 9 reported that four of the victims were found on the 14th floor and pronounced dead on the scene; the fifth victim was found in a stairway and died in a hospital.
A 45-story tower in the Financial District from Mitsui Fudosan America, the U.S. arm of the Japanese developer, has taken a step forward with the publication this month of the project’s initial environmental study. The documents show a significant redesign.
Recently an article, Construction Concerns: IBC 2021 Heavy Timber Proposal[1] , appeared in Fire Engineering that raised concerns regarding the now newly passed “Tall Mass Timber” code additions to the International Building Code (IBC) 2021 Edition. The article briefly outlined some of the central code changes that will permit tall mass timber buildings.
A brief examination of all the Tall Mass Timber (TMT) code provisions that will be included in the 2021 International Building Code (IBC) will demonstrate that the fire safety protection required by the new code changes provides for the life safety of occupants and firefighters that will respond to emergencies in these buildings.
Why These Codes Were Necessary
Portland, Oregon, has an eight-story condominium building, Carbon 12, made of mass timber (photo 3). It is the tallest modern wooden timber building in the country. Minneapolis’ T3 Building (photos 1, 4) is a seven-story mass timber office building. Two new tall mass timber buildings have been proposed by New Land Enterprises in Milwaukee, one an office building the other residential.[2] Others are being proposed in Cleveland, Newark, and other cities.
Building officials needed well-crafted code provisions to guide their plans review and approval process. The International Code Council (ICC) was asked to create a committee to study the science of tall wood buildings, assess their feasibility, and, if feasible, draft code provisions that would protect the occupants and first responders. The result of the three years of committee work and fire testing produced the 14-code provision that will be included into the IBC in 2021.
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“I think we’re one of the tallest buildings in the Arts District,” Ryan Afari said on a cloudy weekday afternoon.
Afari made the comment while standing on the rooftop deck of the Walnut Building. He pointed to the Toy and Biscuit Company lofts a few blocks away, the two structures that kicked off the Arts District residential boom more than a decade ago.
The Walnut Building is the latest project from developer the Hillcrest Company, which previously tackled Downtown endeavors including the Chapman Lofts in the Historic Core and the Commodore Building in City West. Like its Arts District neighbors, the Walnut is an aged commercial structure that has been turned into housing. The exterior has been fully restored, and the rooftop refashioned to provide a deck with a sweeping view.
High-rise buildings present several unique challenges not found in traditional low-rise buildings; longer egress times and distance, evacuation strategies, fire department accessibility, smoke movement and fire control.
High-rise buildings have garnered significant attention in the fire safety world over the years. The multiple floors of a high-rise building create the cumulative effect of requiring great numbers of persons to travel great vertical distances on stairs in order to evacuate the building. The public, code bodies, local, regional and federal governments, as well as the design, build, and ownership communities are all affected by high-rise building safety.
Apartment buildings
People living in an apartment building need to think ahead and be prepared in the event of a fire. It is important to know the fire safety features in your building and work together with neighbors to help keep the building as fire-safe as possible.
The Continental Building, one of Downtown Los Angeles’ first high-rise structures as well as the first old building to be turned into modern housing as part of the Downtown adaptive reuse craze, is getting ready for another change: It will become a hotel. Documents filed last week with the Department of City Planning detail plans to convert the 12-story building at 408 S. Spring St. into a 140-room boutique hotel.
Fire safety is the set of practices intended to reduce the destruction caused by fire. Fire safety measures include those that are intended to prevent ignition of an uncontrolled fire, and those that are used to limit the development and effects of a fire after it starts.
Fire safety measures include those that are planned during the construction of a building or implemented in structures that are already standing, and those that are taught to occupants of the building.
Threats to fire safety are commonly referred to as fire hazards. A fire hazard may include a situation that increases the likelihood of a fire or may impede escape in the event a fire occurs.
Fire safety is often a component of building safety. Those who inspect buildings for violations of the Fire Code and go into schools to educate children on Fire Safety topics are fire department members known as Fire Prevention Officers. The Chief Fire Prevention Officer or Chief of Fire Prevention will normally train newcomers to the Fire Prevention Division and may also conduct inspections or make presentations.
Outside of the Upper Haight, you can’t get much higher in San Francisco than the 61st floor of the Salesforce Tower—aka the Ohana Floor—the very top of the city’s tallest tower.
What’s on the top floor, exactly? No offices, for starters. The top floor is dedicated to the public, who will be invited up free of charge. It runs the full length of the 61st floor, located 1,070 feet high. Consider it a public penthouse of sorts for Salesforce employees and customers, as well as the community at large. Photo by Lynn Yeh/Shutterstock
LOS ANGELES – A building in downtown Los Angeles caught fire Wednesday morning, prompting a large response from firefighters.
The blaze started about 5 a.m. and burned until 8:30 a.m. in the 1300 block of Margo Street, about four blocks from Staples Center, according to Los Angeles Fire Department. Pallets inside the structure contributed to heavy smoke and fire.
KTLA’s helicopter showed video of flames burning through the roof of the commercial structure.
More than 160 firefighters were battling the blaze, according to LAFD spokeswoman Margaret Stewart.
There were no immediate reports of injuries.
Concrete structures neighboring the building helped keep the fire from spreading, LAFD Capt. Silverman said.
