Attic Space Fire

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Attic space fire. Flammable or hazardous items should not be stored in the attic with extreme temperatures these items can cause a fire within your home says professional organizer susan santoro founder of organizing website organized31 who notes that chemicals can also leak when they re not stored in climate controlled spaces. Fires in attics therefore typically and quickly become ventilation limited even more so than lower levels of a structure that have more windows and doors. A march 2009 change to the massachusetts building code requires the use of nfpa 13 systems in group r occupancies with a total floor area exceeding 12 000 square feet based mainly on a 2008 fire in an apartment complex that burned up the exterior of a building to reach an unprotected attic space. Since the staircase to the attic can act as a chimney for the fire to quickly spread it s necessary to have a secondary point of egress or exit.

Second position a 2 inch handline in the hall to darken any advancing fire in the attic void space area. The fire did not make it through the firewall between the house and the garage attic spaces. Attics are the worst place to be in a fire because heat and fire rise rapidly. The openings provided for natural ventilation are not enough to maintain steady state burning and fuel limited fire behavior.

An attic can be a concealed space if it is constructed and used as a concealed space as outlined in 8 15 1 2 1 of nfpa 13. A careful search of the attic indicated that no extension of the fire had gone into the attic space. This is largely because nfpa 13 does not declare attics to be concealed spaces since not all attics are created equally from a fire development and fire spread perspective. The garage portion of the house was destroyed.

It s still undetermined at this point but it s looking like a dryer malfunction that caused the fire to spread to the attic space and then it moved across the attic said robin mcgill with the. Now here s the good news. Attic fires are commonly ventilation limited fires. Therefore the standard allows the hazards present for an attic space to determine whether it can be considered concealed and whether or not sprinkler protection should be provided.

In most codes this means an opening not fixed window to the outside. Opening the roof or gables will merely increase the rate of combustion and subsequent heat production and structural deterioration while providing no benefit.