Post by cmcollier on May 28, 2008 16:07:23 GMT -5
I found this building while doing inspections in Dist. 18 one day. It was registered to a paving company. I figured this would be an easy inspection, big garage with some equipment and maybe a repair shop for their trucks... Wrong!
This picture shows most of the B side of the building. It extends approx. another 20 feet to the right as seen from the picture with a man door on the B-A corner. The A side of the building has a large overhead door similar to the one in this picture on the B side.
Look at the crack on the left side of the overhead door and then scroll through the next two pictures.
The wall was obviously hit by something. I don't know if the wall was hit from the inside pushing it out or from the outside pushing it in, but it was definitely hit. Something hit it with enough force to push the blocks about 3 inches or so. This building has a wood truss roof so all of the weight is on the two long exterior walls. The owners tried to cover up the crack by filling in the gaps with some mortar as seen in the pictures. I found this before entering the building to begin my inspection. Once I went inside it got even worse. Check out the next picture.
This last picture was taken with my back to the A side wall. The bright lite seen through the curtain is the open overhead door on the B side. The owners covered the ceiling of the front half of the building with a blue plastic tarp as well as made a curtain to split the shop in half with another large blue plastic tarp. The close side was used as a paint booth for construction equipment, and one time i was there they were ironically enough painting a fire truck. The other side was used to store and repair the construction equipment. None of the proper safeguards were in place for a spraying operation: no booth, no suppression system, no explosion proof electric, no ventilation, etc. Not to mention the other side of the shop had welding and cutting equipment.
This place is a perfect example of why a good size up is so important, including a good 360. This place presents a ton of challenges: size, limited access, more importantly limited egress, limited ventilation, long hose stretches, etc.
It is also a good example of prevention and suppression working together. After finding this I made sure to let the boys from 181 know what was going on. This building is a firefighter deathtrap and nothing inside is worth a firefighters life. This is why inspections are so valuable. If you don't talk to whoever does the fire inspections in your town on a regular basis you are missing out on tons of good information. Some inspectors will come to you if they find something to bring it to your attention, which they should. If they don't, call them every once in a while and ask if they found anything recently you should know about.
This picture shows most of the B side of the building. It extends approx. another 20 feet to the right as seen from the picture with a man door on the B-A corner. The A side of the building has a large overhead door similar to the one in this picture on the B side.
Look at the crack on the left side of the overhead door and then scroll through the next two pictures.
The wall was obviously hit by something. I don't know if the wall was hit from the inside pushing it out or from the outside pushing it in, but it was definitely hit. Something hit it with enough force to push the blocks about 3 inches or so. This building has a wood truss roof so all of the weight is on the two long exterior walls. The owners tried to cover up the crack by filling in the gaps with some mortar as seen in the pictures. I found this before entering the building to begin my inspection. Once I went inside it got even worse. Check out the next picture.
This last picture was taken with my back to the A side wall. The bright lite seen through the curtain is the open overhead door on the B side. The owners covered the ceiling of the front half of the building with a blue plastic tarp as well as made a curtain to split the shop in half with another large blue plastic tarp. The close side was used as a paint booth for construction equipment, and one time i was there they were ironically enough painting a fire truck. The other side was used to store and repair the construction equipment. None of the proper safeguards were in place for a spraying operation: no booth, no suppression system, no explosion proof electric, no ventilation, etc. Not to mention the other side of the shop had welding and cutting equipment.
This place is a perfect example of why a good size up is so important, including a good 360. This place presents a ton of challenges: size, limited access, more importantly limited egress, limited ventilation, long hose stretches, etc.
It is also a good example of prevention and suppression working together. After finding this I made sure to let the boys from 181 know what was going on. This building is a firefighter deathtrap and nothing inside is worth a firefighters life. This is why inspections are so valuable. If you don't talk to whoever does the fire inspections in your town on a regular basis you are missing out on tons of good information. Some inspectors will come to you if they find something to bring it to your attention, which they should. If they don't, call them every once in a while and ask if they found anything recently you should know about.
