FIREFIGHTING IN MODERN OFFICE BUILDINGS

A modern, glass-enclosed office building can present firefighting challenges not usually encountered in residential buildings of the same size. Firefighters more accustomed to fighting fires in multiple dwellings than office occupancies may endanger themselves if they fail to realize that there are fundamental differences between residential buildings and modern offices. This article examines these differences and explains why tactics commonly used to fight fires in multiple dwellings may be ineffective at a fire in a modern office building.

Residential buildings have a much greater degree of compartmentation than most of the office buildings constructed during the past two or three decades. Apartments, condominiums, and hotel rooms are typically separated from each other and the public hallway by fire-rated walls that connect directly to the underside of the floor above. This compartmentation tends to confine a fire to the living unit of origin and often limits its potential size to within the suppression capability of one 13⁄4-inch hoseline flowing 150 to 180 gallons per minute (gpm). Compartmentation, common in fire-resistant residential buildings, makes it possible to implement a protect-in-place strategy in which the fire department directs most residents to remain in their apartments while firefighters extinguish the fire. A protect-in-place strategy is the only practical way for an understaffed fire department to handle a fire in a building occupied primarily by elderly residents. The alternative to a protect-in-place strategy is for old and infirm residents to leave the relative safety of their apartments and risk evacuating through smoky hallways, stairways, and elevators.

Modern office buildings are commonly constructed with little or no compartmentation on each floor. Essentially, each floor is one big potential fire area that can measure thousands of square feet and requires a complete evacuation of everyone working on the fire floor. Considering the heavy fire loading of most offices, consisting of paper and synthetic furnishings, fires in large office suites can rapidly escalate to such an extent that multiple 21⁄2-inch hoselines or master stream devices must be deployed to bring them under control.