NFPA Journal - September/October 2017 - 24

A week earlier, the property, about 10 miles west of Boston, was occupied by five nearly completed apartment buildings containing more
than 260 units, which were set to start taking tenants in the fall. But
early on the morning of July 23, a massive fire tore through the complex, reducing most of it to rubble. Only concrete elevator shafts and a
concrete parking garage remained intact.
The blaze spit embers like a wildfire, threatening properties thousands of feet away. "The embers that I saw flying by were softball-sized,"
recalled Waltham Deputy Fire Chief Andrew Mullin. "We received
reports of embers and debris up to a mile from the site ... and numerous roofs that have damage." Embers sparked a dumpster fire about a
third of a mile from the site and a small structure fire about a quarter
of a mile away, according to Mullin. About three weeks after the fire,
investigators announced it was intentionally set and that they were
seeking the public's help in identifying the arsonist. Damage was estimated at $110 million.
The Waltham blaze was one of a series of large fires that have
occurred in the last several months in buildings under construction in
the United States. In August, a 118-year-old former mill in Colorado,
which was being redeveloped into a restaurant and other businesses,
was destroyed by a fire. Earlier that month, a fire ignited by soldering
caused extensive damage to a historic building being renovated on the
campus of the University of Vermont. In early July, a fire that was large
enough to be detected by weather satellites in space razed a seven-story
apartment building under construction in Oakland, California. In June,
flames gutted a nearly completed apartment building in Boston. In
April, a fire caused an estimated $40 million in damage to an apartment building under construction in Maryland. And in March, two fires
less than a week apart roared through apartment buildings under construction in North Carolina and Kansas.
In five of these fires-the two in Massachusetts, and the ones in Maryland, North Carolina, and Kansas-a common thread was the buildings'

24 | NFPA JOURNAL * S E P T E M B E R / O C T O B E R 2 0 1 7

wood-frame construction, which relies on the use
of structural wood members like two-by-fours
coupled with "lightweight" or "engineered" wood
components produced with glues and resins.
(Wood-frame construction should not be confused
with mass timber construction, which uses much
larger, heavier slabs of engineered wood to build
what are commonly referred to as "tall wooden
buildings.") Wood has been touted as a less
expensive, longer-lasting, and more sustainable
alternative to materials like steel and concrete.
Wood-frame construction is widely used in single-family homes, and has also become common
in larger buildings, many of them multifamily
housing complexes up to five stories in height.
Lightweight wood has also been proven to
burn, and fail, faster than traditional dimensional
lumber, which is why it has been a safety concern
of the fire service for more than 20 years. But
others stress that questioning the building materials involved in these recent fires is only one step
in addressing the problem. A more comprehensive
approach, they say, considers the fire hazards presented by any construction site, regardless of the
materials used for building.
An important tool for mitigating the fire hazards
of construction sites is NFPA 241, Safeguarding
Construction, Alteration, and Demolition Operations. The standard outlines measures to reduce
the risk of fire in buildings under construction,
as well as those being renovated or demolished.
It requires building owners, who are tasked with

BOB DUVAL

n a warm summer
morning, the smell
of smoke still
lingered among
the masses of
charred wood and
twisted metal
blanketing a large plot
of riverside land in
Waltham, Massachusetts.

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of NFPA Journal - September/October 2017