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Component Manufacturing dverti$er
December 2016 #09209 Page #53
Don’t Forget! You Saw it in the
Adverti$er
Fire Safety for the Holiday Season and Year ‘Round Construction and Design Information for the Fire Performance of Wood Products
Robert Glowinski is the President & CEO of the American Wood Council (AWC).
The winter season is upon us, and families across the country are decorating their homes for holiday festivities. Unfortunately, this time of year is also marked by an increase in fires – with the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) reporting the highest occurrence of candle and decoration-ignited fires during the month of December. NFPA estimates U.S. fire departments responded to an average of 366,600 home structure fires per year during the five-year-period of 2007–2011. These fires caused an estimated average of 2,570 civilian deaths, 13,210 civilian injuries, and $7.2 billion in direct property damage per year. Almost three-quarters (71%) of the reported home structure fires and 84% of the home fire deaths occurred in one- or two-family homes, including manufactured homes. The remainder occurred in apartments or other multifamily housing.1 This reality serves as a reminder of why fire safety and fire resistance are such important topics in the building world, especially as it relates to wood construction. By their design, building codes are written so that compliant structures all provide the same levels of safety, regardless of principal materials used. As a result, when built according to code, wood-frame construction has a proven fire safety and performance record. The American Wood Council (AWC), reflecting the interests of the wood industry, takes its role on fire safety very seriously. To encourage proper building design for fire safety, AWC has developed various resources and regularly works with local and national fire authorities on how to prevent and reduce fire losses. Several AWC publications are currently available, geared toward designers of wood structures. AWC also maintains a specialized website intended for educating the fire service and has developed best practice manuals for preventing fires at construction sites.
Publications for Designers AWC publishes the Design for Code Acceptance #2 – Design of Fire-Resistive Exposed Wood Members (DCA 2) and Technical Report No. 10 – Calculating the Fire Resistance of Exposed Wood Members (TR 10). Each document reflects new provisions found in the 2012 and 2015 International Building Code (IBC) pertaining to designing wood buildings for fire safety. The updated reports contain full details and are available for free download at www.awc.org. Revisions incorporated in the reports include:
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New sections that support the use of a calculation design method with smaller dimension sizes associated with lumber joist floor assemblies;
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Revised design tables which allow more accurate calculation of fire resistance of columns; and
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A new section for calculating the fire resistance of single-span lumber joists for any design stress ratio when joists are exposed on 3 sides and braced on the top edge.
Fire Safety for the Holiday Season and Year ‘Round continues
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National Fire Protection Association, “Home Structure Fires,” April 2013 PHONE: 800-289-5627 Read/Subscribe online at www.componentadvertiser.com
FAX: 800-524-4982