Previous coverage of Manassas fire, including fireground audio & arrival video
NIST fact sheet on house to house fire spread
Discarded cigarette causes Manassas fire
I have referred to these stories many times, but the video has not been available in recent years on the Internet. WUSA9.com’s Emily Cyr took care of that problem for us today. The videos from July, 2004 relate directly to the conflagration last Thursday in Manassas, Virginia. NIST discovered that the simple and relatively inexpensive idea of adding a fire barrier under vinyl siding makes a dramtic difference in preventing fire spread when single family homes are built with little space between the structures.
All the way at the bottom of this post is a 10-minute interview conducted on Saturday by WUSA9.com’s Surae Chinn with Loudoun County, Virginia’s Interim Fire Chief Keith Brower. Like City of Manassas Fire Marshal Frank Teevan, Chief Brower was always one of the go-to guys when I was reporting and looking for an expert on fire safety issues. Chief Brower talks at length about how residential sprinklers and the lessons learned from the NIST testing can be the difference between one home burning and a neighborhood on fire.
Also on STATter911 …
- Pre-arrival video: Two homes burning in Loudoun County, Virginia. The joy of owning a home that is built to burn. Just plain stupid. – March 12, 2012
- Attention Northern Virginia firefighters: Purcellville VFC would like your help in honoring Capt. Michael Quin, USMC. – March 9, 2012
- Pre-arrival video: House fire in Clovis, California. – January 7, 2013
- Pre-arrival video: Single family home under construction spreads to four other houses in British Columbia. – September 27, 2012
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Dave- one of the things that video does a good job of showing is what actually happens with the vinyl siding, it melts and exposes the weather wrap and eventually the OSB underneath it. The OSB is what actually burns and it burns quickly. I shared the misconception, that a lot of firefighters do, that the vinyl siding was burning and that it was the cause of the problem.
The firefighters in our area HAVE to learn and understand the potential disasters of vinyl siding over OSB for walls, exposed manufactured I-joists, light weight construstion trusses, the heat release of modern materials and the larger open floor plans of the houses being built today. This will effect our operations and tactics.
I appreciate the coverage you are providing to this issue. Thanks.
The tests were an eye opener for me. I am grateful that folks from PW got me involved in this. I learned a lot.
Statter
Great demonstration/video. Now, get it mandatory in new construction and it’ll mean something. How hard would it be to retrofit 1/2 gypsum/drywall to existng structures?
I love the part where the one politician or whoever he is? is saying he did’nt think it was an issue of life saftey..
Something needs to be done, either make a law where houses have to have a certain distance between each other or start making it mandatory for better fire rating or outlaw the vinyl siding all in all. People also need to start making an impact by just not buying houses so close to each other also.