Morning Lineup - September 15

Hiding In The Smoke

We’ve been commenting a lot recently about the rash of multi-unit residential fires that has shown up this year. Everybody seems to agree that these fires are being primarily propogated by the highly flammable building materials that are now being used, both structurally and on the exterior. LightRock has aptly dubbed them “Plastic and Glue” fires because that is basically what they are: vinyl (oil) siding, along with sheathing and floor joists made out of wood chips and glue.

The Fire Service has been vocal in some areas about alerting the public to the hazards of this budget-construction method. But Firegeezer has noticed a trend starting already to divert the public’s view away from the base problem.

Let’s take a moment to look at what is happening up in the Province of Alberta. After suffering a string of these “urban wildfires” this summer, including one that wiped out 170+ residences, the fire chiefs of Edmonton and Calgary have led the charge to expose this insidious practice and rocked the legislators back with challenges to make immediate changes to the building codes.

Whether the Provincial Assembly actually does something will be seen later this year. But the public has been alerted, I might add, very effectively and the politicians will have a hard time ducking the issue, however much they would like to.

Now let’s switch our spotlight across the continent to another place where these fires have been getting some publicity lately, North Carolina. After a similar fire in February destroyed 38 homes in Raleigh, the City Council commissioned a study to determine the cause for the rapid fire spread and to recommend solutions. They have determined that the cause of the fire was an improperly extinguished cigarette that ignited pine straw used as landscaping mulch. Strong winds drove air-borne embers onto dry vegetation that allowed the fire to quickly spread to nearby buildings. Fire spread up vinyl siding through the soffits and into the attics.

Photographs showing smoke going straight up and no ground scorching around the buildings, coupled with the fact that pine straw has been used for ground cover for decades indicates to me that a diversion is being set up. Already, the politicians and the politically appointed fire chiefs are laying the blame on cigarettes and landscaping product.

After a fire last week that wiped out one end of an apartment building in Wilmington, No. Carolina, the chief said: “We feel like it could have been prevented. They could have used some type of non-combustible type of landscaping such as rock or stone, which would have prevented the fire from spreading to the vinyl and then up the building.”

Killer mulch at work in Wilmington

Do you see the trend here? Focus on the mulch….let’s not look at the plastic and glue holding these buildings together. Do you have any doubt about the political power that the construction industry holds over the legislators in that state?

This is where organizations like firefighters union Locals should be playing a role. We, all of us, need to educate the public that it doesn’t matter so much where the fire started. The real problem is what is going on inside the building after the fire gets going. What are you going to do about it?

(to be continued tomorrow)

Ok…let’s get the equipment checked out. See you at the coffee table.

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