Attic Space Fire

In most codes this means an opening not fixed window to the outside.

Attic space fire.

The fire did not make it through the firewall between the house and the garage attic spaces. The openings provided for natural ventilation are not enough to maintain steady state burning and fuel limited fire behavior. 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.

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. The application of water on the underside of the roof area will slow or stop the fire. The garage portion of the house was destroyed. Attics are the worst place to be in a fire because heat and fire rise rapidly.

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. Attic fires are commonly ventilation limited fires. This is a drywalled wall that goes from the slab to the. Now here s the good news.

A careful search of the attic indicated that no extension of the fire had gone into the attic space. The size of the. 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. 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.

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. Opening the roof or gables will merely increase the rate of combustion and subsequent heat production and structural deterioration while providing no benefit.