Tower Ladder 424 was the first arriving truck company at a reported fire in a five-story apartment building under construction in the Penn Daw area of Fairfax County, Virginia, on Saturday morning. The crew told photographer Andrew W. Pang that they pulled into the courtyard on Side Alpha. There was an active fire in one part of the structure. Very quickly the wind expanded the fire throughout the building. The tower crew was surrounded by fire on three sides.

The four-alarm fire took hours to control as it consumed five buildings and 14 townhouses under construction as well as damaging 14 townhouses, four single-family homes, five apartment buildings, one commercial building, and 28 vehicles.

Eight of the 20 large-loss 2017 structure fires documented by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) involve apartment complexes under construction, several within weeks of completion. These fires generated a combined $428.5 million loss. (NFPA 2018)

This included fires in Massachusetts, Maryland, North Carolina, Texas, Hawaii, California, and New Jersey. Historian Mike Legeros and the Raleigh Fire Museum created a valuable site collecting all of the information from The Metropolitan fire on March 16, 2017.

In 2019 there was just one California large-loss apartment complex under construction. In the first 6 weeks of 2020, there have been large-loss fires in Florida, New Jersey, and Virginia.

Special Considerations When Evaluating Mid-Rise Type V “Podium” Structures Under Construction

New three-to-seven story wood frame multi-family dwellings are often Type V (wood-frame) construction built on a “podium” of Type I (fire-resistive) construction that will house retail or parking (Hoesly). This type of construction is most frequent when looking at buildings having 50 or more units. (Fox).

Using automatic fire sprinklers allows a building of maximum size, including creative building design elements that create voids, fire apparatus access issues, and firefighting unfriendly features like cathedral ceilings. The sprinklers and standpipes are not operational during construction.

1. Explosive Fire Development

Used with permission from Andrew W. Pang

Tower 424’s experience in the courtyard is not unique, as first-alarm crews from earlier mid-rise multi-family structures under construction are run-out of the building due to explosive fire development. Tower 424 was able to back out of the courtyard with some “crust” and a heat-cracked windshield.

Fairfax County Professional Firefighters and Paramedics IAFF Local 2068 President Ron Kuley was off-duty and at the fire. He did a Facebook Live video at Poag Street and Red Star Lane, the northwest corner of the complex.

Alexandria Engine 207 – 4th due engine on the 1st alarm – was on a Poag Street hydrant at the northwest corner. At that time one-third of the building was on fire – the wind was pushing the fire north. The rapidly expanding fire from the south side of the building required Engine 207 to disconnect and quickly move the rig away from the fire building, leaving hose on the street.

Within two minutes of starting the FaceBook Live broadcast, the fire was blowing over the northwest corner of the roof. Orange could be seen glowing from 5th, 4th, and 3rd-floor windows spreading north past the middle third of the structure.

The windows fail 45 seconds later, with fire showing all along the west side of the building. Black smoke is billowing from the northwest corner.

The black smoke ignites at the 3:17 minute mark of the Facebook Live broadcast. It will later look like a blowtorch just before the structure collapses.

How fast could your crew disconnect a pumper from a hydrant and move the rig? Or bring an aerial down, raise the outriggers, and move the rig?

FaceBook Live image used with permission from Ron Kuley

2. Massive Heat Release Endangers Exposures

The top image shows the apartment building under full combustion. It released so much energy and products of combustion that it showed up on weather radar.

There were occupied structures on the other side of the street on the north, west, and south sides.

Used with permission from Andrew W. Pang

There were five apartment buildings, 14 townhouses, four single-family structures, and a commercial building exposed to massive heat energy and embers.

Operating seven 2.5″ hand lines and six master streams exceeded the water supply capabilities.

Despite that, none of the occupied buildings were lost. There were broken windows, burned window drapes, heat/water damage, and a burned sofa.

Have your firefighters calculate the required GPM to extinguish all five floors of the “future multifamily” structure.

3.  Need Massive Fire Suppression Resources

Northern Virginia has operated under an automatic aid agreement for decades, with the nearest unit dispatched to the incident under the same radio system with unique unit identifiers and standardized operational procedures. For this four alarm fire 20 engine companies, 10 truck companies, and 1 heavy rescue company were assigned. They came from Fairfax County, Alexandria City, Arlington County, Fort Belvoir and Prince George’s County (Maryland). Over 200 firefighters – along with command, EMS, and support staff – operated at this event.

These events often overwhelm the normally available emergency resources. At some of the other construction fires, there are long-distance mutual aid, mandatory call-back of off-duty shifts, or multiple-day suppression efforts.

How could your department assemble 20 engines and 10 aerials?

4. May Need To Create New Apparatus Access Points

Many of these apartment building sites are Infill Development, meaning “… development of vacant lots in communities or urban areas that have already been developed. Infill development fills in the gaps by developing land among other properties that have already been improved.”

This sometimes means that the development, like South Alex in Fairfax County, will have limited access. Poag Street dead-ends at the townhouse development that is west of Red Star Lane. The only access is from the east side of the complex.

Picture from Greater Springfield Volunteer Fire Department

Greater Springfield Engines 422 and 422B removed a fence and cut down a tree to establish an additional water supply from Shaffer Drive to the west side of the complex at Poag Street. This also allowed Alexandria Truck 208 (tiller), Tower 424 and Truck 422 (rear-mount) to gain access to the west side of the complex to protect the exposed townhouses and apartments with their master streams.

Used with permission from Andrew W. Pang

Are there large developments in your district that have a single access point?

Can you identify a way to create a second access point?

5. Early Collapse 

Incompleted Type V (wood-frame) construction is subject to rapid structural deterioration when the load-bearing engineered wood elements are not protected by drywall, fire retardant or automatic fire sprinklers. Establishing collapse zones early is an important strategic goal.

While not as dramatic, failure or lack of a sprinkler system in a completed and occupied Type V midrise apartment buildings can lead to extensive fire development.

Identify all of your Type V midrise multifamily structures, their built-in fire protection and where the collapse zone will be.

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Thanks to Tony Kelleher, Judi Lukens, Randall Schwartz, Dave Iannone, Andrew W. Pang, Bob Luckett, Ron Kuley, Bill Murray, Debi Gerald, Dave Statter, John Richter, Tim Wolfe, Chris Payne, William Schnaekel, Mike Legeros, NFPA, Fairfax County Fire and Rescue, Google Maps, Combined Properties, and South Alex as I “harvested” information for this article from Facebook, Twitter, websites and one-on-one interactions.

Initial research on fire loss of Type V podium midrise apartments under construction was used for the 4th edition of Fire Officer: Principles and Practice. page 364.

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Public Information Office (2020 February 9) Groveton Fire Causes Extensive Damage; Cause Remains Under Investigation. Fairfax, VA: Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department. Accessed February 9, 2020. https://ffxfirerescue.wordpress.com/2020/02/09/groveton-fire-causes-extensive-damages-cause-remain-under-investigation/?fbclid=IwAR3m4v65FTTFyPkmuombq7TKe2U37IOXODIQfwZvy3bRWyCSc6rUpbqxS6oBadger,

Badger, Stephen (2018 November 1) Large-loss Fires and Explosions in 2017.  Driven by a historically destructive California wildfire, 22 large-loss fires last year resulted in 52 deaths, 233 injuries, and an estimated $12.5 billion in direct property losses.NFPA Journal. Accessed February 09, 2020. https://www.nfpa.org/News-and-Research/Publications-and-Media/NFPA-Journal/2018/November-December-2018/Features/Large-Loss-Fires-2017

Badger, Stephen G. and Matthew Foley (2019 November) Large-Loss Fires and Explosions in the United States During 2018: Supporting Tables. Quincy, MA: National Fire Protection Association. Accessed February 9, 2020. https://www.nfpa.org/-/media/Files/News-and-Research/Fire-statistics-and-reports/US-Fire-Problem/osLargeLossTables.pdf

Legeros, Mike (2019 June 16) The Metropolitan – March 16, 2017. Raleigh, NC: Raleigh Fire Museum. Accessed February 9, 2020.  https://raleighfiremuseum.org/content/metropolitan/

Stepzinski, Teresa. (2020 January 12) 3-alarm fire destroys $16.5 million Jacksonville apartment building under construction. jacksonville.com. Jacksonville, FL: The Florida Times-Union. Accessed February 9, 2020.  https://www.jacksonville.com/news/20200112/3-alarm-fire-destroys-165-million-jacksonville-apartment-building-under-construction

Voght, Erin (2020 January 12) Five-alarm fire rages at Bound Brook unfinished apartment complex. NJ1015.com Ewing, NJ: Townsquare Media.  Accessed February 9, 2020. https://nj1015.com/five-alarm-fire-rages-at-bound-brook-unfinished-apartment-complex/

Hoesly, Nathan (2019) “Cost-Effective Mid-Rise Podium Construction” Niskian.com. Accessed February 9, 2020.  https://www.nishkian.com/cost-effective-mid-rise-podium-construction/

Fox, Justin (2019 February 13) Why America’s New Apartment Buildings All Look the Same: Cheap stick framing has led to a proliferation of blocky, forgettable mid-rises—and more than a few construction fires.  Bloomberg Businessweek.  Accessed February 8, 2020, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2019-02-13/why-america-s-new-apartment-buildings-all-look-the-same?fbclid=IwAR05O2q1aUpV6CVbsumC_rVP0l5EaPP5NLFCxBodgBrNo42fRFfMCsMEyK4

Cooper, Rebecca (2020 February 8) Massive fire strikes South Alex development in Alexandria section of Fairfax. Washington Business Journal Arlington, VA: American Business Journals.   Accessed February 9, 2020. https://www.bizjournals.com/washington/news/2020/02/08/south-alex-development-in-in-alexandria-section-of.html?fbclid=IwAR2QfiiL721hmPDQSfHODYxRJnjWYT0dToDhwglT4MuWzHVUHZFSWXAc0rY

Featured Image: 4th Alarm fire in Fairfax County, Virginia that destroyed the “South Alex” complex under construction on February 8, 2020. Photo from Twitter (photographer unknown)