The Deutsche Bank building in New York (photo 1), as seen after the disastrous fire on August 2007 that killed two firefighters. Note the tremendous amounts of plywood sheeting used to keep asbestos and heavy metals inside the contaminated building that is under demolition. This plywood created an enormous “fuel load in the sky,” used as an exterior containment barrier as well as inside to create mazelike decontamination compartments. This is a wake-up call to environmental officials who push the use of plywood during the decontamination of a buildinga very dangerous practice, especially in a high-rise.
Photo 2: At first glance, this looks like a log cabin. On closer inspection, however, the logs are actually sections of vinyl siding made to look like wood. What you see is not always what you get in building construction.
图3:本月的“历史on Fire” features the Great Baltimore Fire of 1904. This conflagration triggered calls for many fire safety improvements, including the national standardization of fire hose threads (we’re still waiting), the call for a national building code (created in 1905), and the first fire resistance testing procedure in the United States (1907). Ironically, we still use essentially the same “time-temperature” curve today that was developed for this test standard in the 1920s. Many have called for this testtoday known as American Society for Testing and Materials Standard E-119to be replaced by a more modern, realistic test.
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