22 April 2008

No TGI's in the Colerain Fire

A firefighter familiar with the investigation into the fire at Squirrelsnest Lane, says that the house did not have the TGI floor joists as I guessed in an earlier post. The floor had conventional 2x10s and they are unsure why it collapsed so early in the fire. Solid lumber like this should take more than 5-10 minutes to burn enough to collapse. Now it probably was exposed to the basement, and not protected by any drywall, and I saw in the Enquirer article that the fire started in a cedar closet which could have fueled the fire. They did have working smoke detectors, but I am not sure if they had them in the basement. I am also not sure if the homeowners delayed calling 911 which could have allowed the fire to get further along.

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