Brannigan’s Building Construction for the Fire Service 6th edition

According to the text, how many firefighters were injured on the fire ground in 2017?

25,000

What is a critical factor for all fire departments?

Clear communication

What type of message is used by firefighters who are trapped, low on air, disoriented or similar situations? Also used to alert of a collapse or an imminent collapse.

Mayday

When the structure is involved in fire, what building system is under attack?

Gravity resistance system.

In addition to being a sign of professionalism, using the correct language provides____ to firefighters.

Safety

By using proper terminology, you convey not only the charasticts of the building, but also the ____.

Hazards

In the case of lightweight trusses or wooden I-Beams, a department SOPs should provide evacuation of the affected area as soon as…

it is involved in fire.

What year was the first article on prefire planning?

January 1948

____ the building when analyzing how and when the fire will spread in a building.

Undress

What is the basic objective of prefire planning?

To consider potential emergency situations and develop the best possible plans for coping with them.

What other purpose can prefire planning serve?

Detect weather a potential disaster exists that cannot be adequately address by the fire department.

Building codes establish the ____ level of safety.

Minimum.

Which agency reports on firefighter fatalities?

National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health.

What two websites have been developed to disseminate information about fire ground near misses?

Firefighterclosecalls.com and Firefighternearmisses.com

Changing the fire ground philosophy from traditional to one of ____ and ____ is critical for everyone involved.

Safety and Survival

Fire officers should include what information in their initial radio report?

Smoke and fire conditions, location of the fire, and the type of building construction.

Using proper building construction terminology is critical to what three factors?

Clarify communications, enhance professionalism, and ensure safety.

A study of information that has been gathered as part of a prefire plan to identify specific construction issues or concerns and interactions.

Prefire analysis

The gathering of general and detailed data and incorporating it into a document that may be used by responding personnel.

Prefire planning

What is the overall rational for a structure?

To provide shelter.

The greatest enemy of all firefighters is?

Gravity

In a building, this consists of all the structural elements and the connections that support and transfer the loads.

Gravity resistance system

The majority of buildings are what type of building construction?

non-fire-resistive

What are the four types of forces that can be applied to a structural member?

Compression, tension, torsion, and shear.

Type of force- occurs when the force squeezes a structural members

Compresive

Types of forces- Stretch a member such as a steel cable.

Tensile

Types of forces- Force that twists a structural member.

Torsional

The measurable turning force applies to a structural member.

Torque

Types of forces- Occur within a building member when opposing forces pull the member in opposite directions and are often the result of wind load.

Shear forces.

The result of forces applied to structural members.

Stress and strain.

An external force that acts on a structure.

Load

The internal forces that resist the load are called…

Stress and strain.

The force per unit area that produces a deformation. It is usually measured in psi, although occasional references to psf are also found.

Stress

A term meaning 1000 pounds

KIP

The actual percentage of elongation(deformation) that occurs when a material is stressed. It is measured in fractions of an inch of deformation per inch of original length of the material.

Strain

A ____ in a building works to destroy the gravity resistance system of the structure.

Load

Forces or other actions that result from the weight of all building materials, occupants and their possessions, environmental effects, differential movement, and restrained dimensional changes.

Loads- According to NFPA 5000: Building Construction and Safety Code

A load my be a ____ load and an ____ load at the same time.

Live and Impact

The weight of the building itself and any equipment permanently attached to it or built in. A more accurate term is self-weight.

Dead load

Fire resistance is closely related to ____?

Mass

A steel lightweight truss is also know as a …

Bar Joist

What two parties should be notified when you suspect a dead load is a catastrophe waiting to happen or you see dead loads on a building.

Local building department and structural engineer

Any other loads than dead loads.

Live loads

Where are typical building code minimum design load requirements for modern buildings spelled out?

NFPA 5000: Building Construction and Safety Code

This term applies to specific large objects.

Concentrated Load

A roof characterized by three dimensional pyramid like trusses.

Spaceframe

Water weighs —— lbs/gal.

8.34lbs/gal

Loads that are delivered over a short time.

Impact Loads

What can cause innumerable undesigned changes in loading?

A fire.

This type of load can produce disastrously high stresses. Can be from an explosion and delivered in a direction that has little to no stress resistance.

Lateral impact loads

What type of collapse is of particular hazard in the construction of concrete-frame buildings?

Progressive collapse.

Loads that applied slowly and remain constant.

Static loads

A load that is applied intermittently.

Repeated load

A type of wall that is installed in a building to resist lateral loads from wind and earthquakes.

Shear Wall

In a wood frame structure, what provides the need shear strength?

Plywood sheeting over the studs.

*Larger structures also use shear walls constructed of steel, concrete or reinforced concrete.

What two closely related structural frames are used in buildings to resist lateral wind and earthquake loads?

Braced frame and moment frame

This type of frame uses diagonal members for bracing purposes.

Braced frame

This type of frame uses special connections between columns and beams that resist rotation.

Moment frames. ( Connections are called moment connections)

*The term moment refers to a force causing rotation of a structural member around a fixed point of connection where the force is applied some distance from a fixed point.

Originally, small wood-buildings were built in these areas with what type of connection to the foundation?

Gravity connection

Today, in wood frame dwellings, the use of strategically placed metal straps to hold roofs in place and bolts to hold the frame to the foundation.

Hurricane bracing

What type of building has enough mass in the walls that special consideration of wind load is unnecessary?

Low-rise bearing wall buildings made with masonry.

An arrangement of bracing between columns that resemble a K.

K-bracing.

In old buildings, heavy riveting of girders to columns from top to bottom of the frame is known as what?

Portal bracing.

A type of floor that is designed to stiffen the building against wind and other later loads such as earthquakes.

Diaphragm Floor

What other type of building component can act as sheer walls?

Masonry walls, with are needed to enclose vertical shafts.

*This method of construction is satisfactory only for low or medium rise buildings.

Externally braced structures are known as ____ construction as contrasted with core construction.

Tube

A rectangular truss with very rigid corner bracing. Formed by exterior box columns and spandrels.

Vierendeel truss

Heavy loads located at one point in the building.

Concentrated loads

Loads are also classified according to the orientation in which they are placed on the structure. What two ways can they be classified?

Axial or Eccentric

*A structure will sustain its greatest load when the load is axial.

A force that is perpendicular to the plane of the section but does not pass through the center of the section, thus bending the supporting members.

Eccentric load

____ represents the total amount of potential energy(heat) in the fuel

Fire load

Heat release rate(HRR)(also expressed as Q) indicates the rate of available ____ released.

Energy

For old Fire Load calculations(pounds of fuel per square foot) you needed what three pieces of information?

The weight of the combustible material, the caloric value for the material and the floor area.

What is the basic measurement of caloric value?

British Thermal Unit (BTU)

How is BTU measured?

The amount of heat required to raise a pound of water one degree Fahrenheit.

What is the metric equivalent to a BTU?

Kilojoule(KJ)

*One BTU is approximately equal to 1 KJ.

Wood, paper and similar materials are estimated at ____ BTU/lb.

8,000

Plastics and combustible liquids are ____ BTU/lb.

16,000

To measure the fire load in BTU/ft2, the weight of the ____ is multiplied by the ____ value and divided by the ____ ____.

fuel, caloric, floor area

In some cases, you may find fire load expressed in psf, a practice that dates back to when there was only one basic fuel i.e. wood or paper. Under this system, plastics were converted into “equivalent pounds” on the basis that __lb of plastics equals __lb of wood.

1lb = 2lb

A fire load of 80,000 Btu/ft2 or 10lb of ordinary combustibles per ft2 is approximately the equivalent of a __-hour exposure to the standards fire endurance test, American Society for Testing and Materials(ASTM) E-119.

1 hour

How is Heat Release Rate(HHR or Q) usually expressed?

In terms of watts(W), Kilowatts(KW) or Megawatts(MW).

What is HRR the primary determinant for?

Whether a compartment will reach flashover.

The space between the top floor ceiling and roof of a building of ordinary construction.

Cockloft

This represents the ratio of the strength of the material just before failure to the safe working stress.

Safety Factor

Made by sandwiching a piece of steel between two wooden beams.

Flitch Plate Girder

*A sheet of plywood may also be sandwiched between the two wooden beams.

Elements(or members) that are assembled together into a structure are often called…

A structural frame

What is probably the oldest structural member?

The beam.

A beam transmits forces in a direction ____ to such forces to the reaction points(points of support).

Perpendicular.

What is a camber in a beam?

Upward rise.

Deflection causes the top of a beam to shorten so the the top is in ____. The bottom of the beam elongates and thus is in ____.

Compression. tension.

The line along which the length of the beam does not change is termed the ____.

Neutral axis or plane.

What is considered an ideal beam?

The cable.

Stiffness can be achieved by…

Material mass or by geometry(the shape of the material)

The load carrying capacity of a beam increase by the ____ of it’s depth.

Square

*But only in direct proportion to increases in width.

What is the almost universal spacing for sawn wooden beams in ordinary construction?

16 inches

Uniformly Distributed Load- If the load is concentrated at the center of a beam, the permitted load is ____ the distributed load.

Half

Type of Beam- Supported at two points near its ends. The load is delivered to the two reaction points.

Simple Beam

Type of Beam- Supported at three of more points.

Continuous Beam

Type of Beam- Supported at two points and is rigidly held in position at both points.

Fixed Beam.