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The Fireground Blueprint: Understanding Modern Building Construction · Fire Engineering Podcast

• Nat Kapustin: From MSA helmets and streamlight flashlights to seek thermal imaging cameras and so much more, the firestore.com has everything you need to serve your community safely and effectively. Welcome to this edition of the Buildings on Fire Podcast. I'm your host, Christopher Naum. So really want to thank you for taking time out of your schedule for joining in to our continuing conversation on the challenges of the built environment and our attempts to try to gain additional insights on building construction and its direct influence on fire ground decision making, aggressive operations, risk management. And our tactical deployments. For those of you that have been listening in and following us for a number of years, actually, it's been over 10 years here at on the fireengineering.com platform and and over 16 years in our pioneering days of first reaching out to the fire service and publishing our our first program all the way going back to 2010 on the the original firefighter nation network. At that time we had the good fortune to be approached by Lieutenant John Mitchell out of Chicago, who had some insights and and certainly was a pioneer back in the day in that 2008, nine and ten era, to identify the need with a very early growing industry on the podcasting side of of training and operations and informational exchange. But he reached out, had an opportunity to go on his program in 2010 at FDIC of all places and we actually presented a a live program from the floor of FDIC in conjunction with Firefighter Nation At a time in which Firefighter Nation was not directly affiliated with fire engineering. However, we did an up had an opportunity to have a conversation on the floor at FDIC in 2010. And within a two-month period of time, July of 2010, the the first edition of taking it to the streets, as we titled it back in the day. Taking it to the streets, buildings on fire was first was first published, and our first episode at that time went live. We actually had live programming up until just a couple of years ago here on the fireengineering.com platform. So as I mentioned, we've had the privilege of sharing with both our our national, our North American, and certainly our our international colleagues across the world. To discuss the issues of and the importance of building construction and how it relates back to both building and fire literacy. It has everything to do with the building and the fire and our operations. Well, that being said, this is you're actually tuning in to the last of two remaining episodes here on fireengineering.com with our Buildings on Fire podcast series. Our series finale will actually take place on November twenty-eighth, at which time the Buildings on Fire program will have been canceled for the remainder of two thousand and twenty-six. But I I certainly want to also indicate that we're not gonna go away. We do have some things in the works that we'll talk a little bit more about in our our season. finale, our program finale for better words here, and our series finale here on November twenty eighth, our our next episode. So Buildings on Fire will continue to produce, promote, and to offer continuing in insights on the influence of building construction, the aspects of and insights on building performance, predictability performance, building reads, and continuing to reinforce And promote the importance of building construction as relates to fire ground operations and decision making. I've said this before in our programs over certainly over the last 10 years, whether it be at FDIC in the presentation settings or in many of our national program deliveries at the national, state, regional, or local level programs as we continue to lecture around the US, and this being our forty first year of doing and having the opportunity and the privilege to do national programs across the US and across the the world on a global basis. But certainly when we talk about building construction, again, it is as fundamental to structural firefighting as water is to fire suppression. I cannot get any more focused and specific when we talk about the importance of building construction as a fundamental to structural fire ground. To structural firefighting as water is to fire suppression. The relationship is direct and the importance is unsurpassed. But at the same time, building construction, training, education, and articulate comprehension, it it continues to be the least embraced, the most avoided, and the and dismissed as a training and competency. Topic, but in reality, it is the most mission critical and influential subject on today's fire ground. the built environment continues to develop at a faster and greater complexity basis, hazards, occupancy risks, than the tactical models of firefighting really have had the opportunity to align with. Now, there's some tremendous strides that are being made. in these various areas and we'll talk more about those. Certainly when we talk about the evidence-based considerations for your fire ground playbook that's come out of our good friends at UL that continues to influence operations and we do see in many instances conversations taking place on construction operations, risk, survivable spaces and and so forth. I'm also pleased to say that it's very encouraging that I'm seeing more and more interest being placed in some of the things that we were pioneers in, going all the way back over 19 years, of taking the classroom out into the streets and talking about building reads and talking about and and many others presenting influential classroom insights and then again the the continuing trend toward building reads out into the streets with walking tours and so forth. We we first rolled those out again over nineteen years ago and it's interesting to see that they continue to be influential by others who have identified that there is a value and need to take that information from the classroom settings beyond just the book settings and really tour our our streets and and Be able to gain some additional insights. That being said, again, a word of caution with some competent and then sometimes some less than accurate presentations that are being promoted many times on on the local and regional level. And I am seeing some of those things occurring on a state on a national level, also with Some additional programs that are being presented along those standpoints. But again, I don't want to distract or or deflect that. Everyone is trying to do some good things out there. And I continue to ask our listeners to support the local, the state, the regional instructors, and certainly the national instructors that are promoting building construction. My only word of caution is just certainly to be To be open toward the possibility of inaccurate information that sometimes comes about through anecdotal information and less than accurate foundations of knowledge that sometimes again are just rooted in anecdotal based information that can continue to be internalized and suddenly that becomes the information that one is getting. But it's certainly challenging at best. And I and again I I I think that for many of you that have been listening into this program over the years, you understand our position, our placement on that, and again trying to make sense out of some challenges from the technical accuracy, the anecdotal information, and certainly to some extent, some of the hidden agendas that may be rooted in that pro in those programs. Again, I will just stress this out. wherever and however you are attaining building construction knowledge. That continues to be the forefront of what you need to be doing. Again, building construction, technical information, all of this through continued efforts, career long efforts, will continue to make you a better firefighter, a better company officer, and certainly a much better commanding officer while you increase both building in fire literacy to increase your competencies and skill set and continue to drive building and fire literacy to develop what needs to be maintained and continue to to strive to attain a higher level of proficiencies due to the demanding nature of building construction and the challenges that come about as a result of trending new materials and methods of construction, the challenges of new methodologies and processes that are introduced in the building sciences, in the construction sciences, and how they ultimately affect us when we're showing up and we have a building occupancy that now demands our full attention through every stage of operation to continue to safeguard our personnel in the delivery of our services. and safeguarding the public and the occupants of those buildings and within our communities that we serve. One of the things that I can continues to be a challenge is is to develop our building and fire literacy. One of the things on our program here on this episode is really to talk about the building and the fire, which are our first and foremost to our operations and our continuing attainment of insights and knowledge on building construction. Number one, you you've got to understand that building construction has everything to do with the aggressive posture on today's fire ground. But without understanding building construction, without understanding the technical basis of how buildings are built, the architecture, the engineering, the fire protection engineering that goes into them, the occupancy types that are drawn out of our codes and our standards. Then also to understand occupancy risks as they relate to the fire conditions, as they relate to the building, as they relate to the era and vintage in which that building was built, and the associated influence that both the building codes, the standards that existed at the time, age, deterioration, weathering, the aspects of building changes and occupancy changes over. significant and sometimes either long or short periods of time. and certainly when I talk about the short periods of time, I think for many of us when we take a look at the relationship there and take a look at the impact of what COVID had and the downscaling or the closure of businesses. And then once we did get out of COVID, the rapid escalation and the changes in our occupancies due to the newer occupancies that were going in or the change in occupancies from one occupancy to another As businesses close and a new occupancy and a new tenant comes into play into that building, naturally there's going to be renovations, alterations, additions, and the introduction of a variety of new methods and materials of construction, both approved and unapproved. Those that go down the approval track that do issue out permits that are based upon engineering and architecture and approved stamping of those documents to allow that building. to be safely renovated and a new occupancy to go in, or unfortunately, the tenant and the owner changes that go into our buildings that result in less than desirable, less than safe conditions that we, the fire service, have also seen the results of those tenant and occupancy based renovations, reconstructions, alterations, and so forth that unfortunately end up contributing toward firefighter injuries. and catastrophic events that unfortunately do lead to firefighter fatality. So there's a lot to be said on that. I do want to take a moment here when we talk about these challenges, and again, just to refresh our our newer listeners and those that you have been listening in for a while and following us for these the last number of years, again I just want to make reference back to how to increase your building and fire literacy, some required readings. certainly one of the most influential books that has existed out there going all the way back almost actually over 50 years continues to be Francis Ching's Building Construction Illustrated now in its seventh edition first edition published all the way in 1975 and again here in our studio just over my shoulder on our reference library does exist my first edition of Francis Ching's Building Construction Illustrated that I obtained in my second year in college as I was continuing my my education to eventually become an architect and to have gone through architectural school at that time. So it was influential back in the day as a student of architecture and was also influential in those early days as I was just starting out in my volunteer fire service profession. To understand building instruction, understand firefighting. So it was influential back in the day, and it continues to be one of the most influential non-fire service related books that you as a firefighter can, or fire officer or fire commander, can obtain. So Francis Cheng's Building Instruction Illustrated, seventh edition. I would also encourage you to seek out the previous editions on on a number of different platforms. Certainly if you can go to Amazon.com if you go to any one of your searches and do a search for Building Construction Illustrated. Not only that, but many other books are going to be found, but you can obtain the older editions for a very reasonable cost in a in a used capacity. Some of the other textbooks that again I've encouraged our listeners to obtain any one of the current or past editions of the fire protection handbook. The Society of Fire Protection Handbook on Fire Protection Engineering. Both the Fire Protection Handbook and the SFPE's handbook on fire protection engineering currently are multiple edition or excuse me, multiple edition books that are part of a series. and again, some of the older editions are available as single copy editions going back in a number of editions in those series. Again, the NIASH Firefighter Line of Duty Death Reports as well as after action reports and other insights that have been published from departments that have had significant events, significant action reports, or or line of duty death reports at the regional, state, and local level. All of those after action reports, significant accident injury, line of duty death reports, the NIASH reports, as well as the the Handbooks that I made reference certainly are books that should be on your professional library shelf that you should be referencing and looking at. Additionally, a couple of other books that I'll make reference to. The American Home by Lester Walker, The Field Guide to the American House by Virginia Savage McAllister, The Collapse of Burning Buildings by Chief Vinny Dunn, The Firefighters Battle Space are certainly a couple of other. Books, along with many other books that our colleagues have published over the years, are books that you should be reading and certainly be looking to having on your bookshelf that are very, very important to be referencing, to be reviewing, and to be reading. One of the other documents that I would encourage you to take a look at is the NFPA 1700 Guide, first published in 2021, and the most recent edition was published in 2022. Six, the beginning of 2026, that makes reference to the guide to structural firefighting based upon evidence-based insights that's being derived from research and items. So again, these are just some other documents that there are some other books that I would encourage you to look at. A couple of other sources that again I would encourage you to be referencing back to. The architectural graphics standard is available in a variety of different editions, the most current edition as well as used copies. But again, that's published by the American Institute of Architects. I would encourage you to obtain that. That's a an exceptional book. It's a sort of a companion book to Ching's Building Construction Illustrated, but again is utilized by architects as a as a reference document on how buildings are designed, how are they built. it is certainly much more technical in perspective and in content, but again, it's a it's an important book to develop some insights that are all part of what we call our fire ground blueprint. our previous editions here in in 2026, we did make reference to this concept. We rolled it out actually last year at FDIC, 2025. We talked about it in a number of our Episodes during the course of 2020, where we introduce the concept of the fire ground blueprint, of which again, building and fire literacy, understanding the building, understanding the fire, and its importance and influence on fire ground decision-making, risk management, aggressive operations, and operational deployments. Two other documents that again are part of our learnings and part of our journey to gain this degree of insight and its influence and importance on building construction, operational considerations and so forth. The IBC, the International Building Code. And then also Francis Ching also has Building Codes Illustrated. So he has published a series of books that are based upon the IBC, the International Code Council's Building Construction Codes. That again provides an illustrated understanding and comprehension of the codes as they relate to construction to gain some additional degrees of comprehension of how buildings are put together, how codes influence how the buildings are designed, how they are constructed, and then more importantly, how they will relate to expected or actual fire ground conditions. That is only gained through our experience on our old firegrounds in our in our first dues. In other words, although we have standards, we have codes, we have very explicit as well as performance-based requirements on how buildings are designed, how they're engineered, how they're constructed, how they eventually are built, how they are occupied, how they are maintained, how changes in those buildings are are managed. both from the architectural engineering and the code standpoint, but again, ultimately how those buildings are maintained by the occupants, the official or unofficial changes that may be impacted by those buildings, as well as the other aspects that coincide with the longevity. The longer a building exists, the more likely that the building will undergo changes that are expected, unexpected, That may be noticed, maybe unnoticed, there may be cosmetic, there may be very apparent changes that can be observed through our building reads, both reading the building on the fire ground externally as part of our 360, but also building reads that occur both pre-incident as well as during an incident. We talk about interior building reads. And we talked a little bit about that in one of our previous episodes here in 2026. So again. there's much to be said and I would encourage our listeners that are out there to make reference back to our our current accessible archives here on Fire Engineering dot com that will hopefully continue to be accessible. Unfortunately, a couple of years ago when there was a when there was a platform change to the most current platform for our pod and webcasting. And again, I think that there's also plans going forward here for another change in platforms and programming. But unfortunately, a number of our years' worth of episodes were lost. They were not maintained, they were not archived. So unfortunately a number of years of episodes were lost due to this transition from one platform to another. But Currently there are a number of years of archived accessible programs here on farengineering.com that you can go back to. Many of you have are have recognized and also know of our multiple part series programs that we're actually very known for and presenting. we did I think upwards of a I think our our maximum was a six part series that we did. on the commercial fire ground. We did a multiple part series on the Row House. We did multiple part series on mega mansions, on ordinary construction, type three and the changes to Main Street. So again, we we did dedicate a number of continuing episodes in order to get in and be able to drill down into some details and not make these podcasts and our webcasts superficial, but really provide our listeners with some in-depth insights into the different perspectives and facets of building construction as they relate it to particular occupancy types, occupancy risk construction, as well as delving into building reads and talking about era and vintage towards our buildings. That I think certainly is one of the most important elements when we talk about predictability of building performance. So again, just to reinforce All buildings are predictable in terms of how they will perform. If we understand the four predominant building reads on the far ground, if we understand how era and vintage of our buildings, in which a particular time in which the building was designed, constructed, and existed, and if it continues to exist, let's say some building going all the way back to the mid to late 1800s, there are very predictable aspects based upon. Elements of when the buildings were built and the impact of the decades of era of time that have gone into those buildings as those b buildings continue to exist, upwards of over 125 to 150 or more years of existence and changes and risks that affects the predictability of the building's performance, but does give us insights on how these buildings will perform on our fire ground, both pre-incident. Then during the conduct of our operations, that is important to be able to recognize, to comprehend, and to implement in our incident action plans at the command strategic level and implement at the tactical and task level during each and every degree of engagement, all the way up to the point of overall and all the way up to the point in which we have actually left the fire ground. So it's important to note that. Again, the the factors, the predictable performance conditions are are there each and every day, thus the importance to be going out and doing either official or unofficial pre-of fire plans, or more importantly, guys, it's doing walkthroughs of our buildings to gain insights on or off shift. Each and every one of you should be taking opportunity to take a look at the buildings that are being built, to take a look at the renovations that Have signing signs posted coming soon, change in occupancy that's going to affect that building. Anytime we see a dumpster in front or behind the building, anytime that there's a building that's unoccupied, in which the tenant is not utilizing the building, either because it's closed, or the fact that the tenant has vacated the building and the building no longer is being currently used as a functioning occupancy. there's going to be aspects of derelict buildings, those buildings that have been abandoned, that there truly are abandoned derelict buildings that pose significant challenges that have risk factors that require us to be diligent to understand those factors based upon community-related influencers and trends and insights and predictable parameters. That also suggest occupancy, occupancy usage, based upon seasonal aspects, as well as other parameters that are defined by your first due, your community, and those things that exist in both rural, suburban, the urban, suburban, our urbanized areas, and certainly our metro locations that. All of us are keenly aware of what can take place, what we can expect to find in any type of building, whether it be in use, not in use, unoccupied, vacant, derelict, or abandoned. They all have parameters that influence our decision making, that influences our decision making, influences what and how we do and what we do. based upon those tactical windows of operations. So I again I'm I'm talking about a number of things here that for some of you may be new, you're hearing it for the first time, but for many of our listeners, again, we're reinforcing concept and parameters that not only are their foundation, but continue to build our insights on the influence of construction, our understanding of construction, its influence on our decision making, building performance and operations. Again, building reads The aspects aspects of reading the building and the continuing trends of and impact of of construction. Construction continues to change. Our buildings are certainly not being built the same manner that they were back 26 years ago, going back to the early 2000s. Certainly does not reflect anything of the 90s, the 80s, the 70s, the 60s, the 1950s, and so forth. The entire last century. From the nineteen hundreds all the way to the nineteen ninety-nine periods, as well as the influence of our construction, methods and materials that go back to the eighteen hundreds, the the the the latter part. So we have when we talk about era and vintage, we have a distinction between the eighteen hundreds from eighteen hundred to around the eighteen fifties, eighteen sixties, and those buildings built from around the eighteen fifties and eighteen sixties. To the latter part or the early part of the 1900s. There are very distinctive elements of era and vintage our need to understand how the buildings were built, methods and materials of construction relative to different periods of time, and those particular aspects. It's interesting to note that the concept of building reeds that we first introduced in 2001, 2002 to the American Fire Service through our writings. In our blog pages at that time, have now become institutionalized. there's a lot of talk about reading the building, comprehension. certainly been become a major part in many individuals. you know, there the a book was written talking about building reads, but again, all of the concepts, the basis of era and vintage, when we first talked about it, were rooted in the historical context of how buildings were designed. How they were constructed from an architectural historical standpoint. Having worked as an architect for a number of years, having studied architecture throughout my entire life, both as a student at the university setting, as a developing architectural intern, as a project architect during my early careers, and then again the relationship with the fire service as I ventured more into the fire service profession, the concepts of what we were dealing with and actually the reality, the reality of the job and our fire ground conditions that we encounter each and every day are fundamentally rooted back into how that building was designed in that particular era relative to the architectural standards. The regulatory requirements, the codes, and other aspects in that particular time. So when we first introduced the concept and the correlation of of error and vintage, it was all rooted back into the aspects of architectural design, engineering, and other parameters that again were being developed all the way back to to the early 1900s, taking a look at researching out codes and standards and ordinances that were being developed in that particular period and other documents. other parameters that clearly aligned and connecting the dots with the importance of error and vintage. So when we first introduced this again through our writings and through our program presentations at that time regionally and then also nationally, we started talking more and more about this concept of of building reads, reading the fire ground, reading the building, and introduced that in that early 2000 era of time. And again, as I mentioned, it's it's It's it's certainly humbling to see this continue to be institutionalized in our terminology and also institutionalized in process, methodologies, suggested practices on today's fire ground. But again, just to reinforce where the genesis of that originated and the fact that again we can provide some further insights on How it came about, the rationale and reasoning and reasoning and so forth. Unfortunately, there are there are others that continue to promote some of their insights through plagiarism and other aspects. But again, we'll just leave that for another day and another time and so forth. So let's let's just talk about some things. You know, one of the goals that all of us should have and again, this is really a career-long demand and effort. When we talk about the fire ground blueprint, we talk about the built environment. Every single one of us, every single one of you needs to have a greater appreciation of the importance of how the built environment does play out and influences your fire ground operations, your decision makings at the task and tactical level. And those of you that are either Currently performing as commanding officers, or will be attaining those positions in the near or or a future standpoint, I cannot stress enough that you need to develop profound levels of proficiencies, understanding, and comprehension of building construction, of your current as well as your future buildings, the built environment that influences your current. Current, first do your community, your cities, your your your areas of response. If you don't understand your buildings, you are derelict and you again may end up having some significant challenges on the fire ground. We have to rethink, we've got to defrag, we've got to reboot, reprogram, reformat. You have to expand your critical thinking, knowledge, skills, and abilities. You have to be able to critically apply them onto the dynamics of the fire ground. You have to develop. Profound building and fire literacies, because again, you may not be able to outrun your degree of illiteracy. Generally speaking, the American Fire Service continues to be profoundly building and fire illiterate. We know enough to get by, but not nearly enough to apply that and comprehend some of those aspects on today's dynamic fireground. And it's only going to continue to get more challenging. The risks are going to continue. We have the introduction of continuing trending methods and materials of construction, building sciences and how buildings are constructed and built, changes in workmanship, and again, the changing fire dynamics. And again, we've got to take a look at the insights that UL is giving us through the continuing aspects of data from research. and the development and the continuing aspects of correlating what we are seeing relative to fire testing and being able to correlate that with the parameters of what the test was designed to potentially identify, what is not being identified, or more importantly, what are the data points that were unexpected that are being identified. That now might correlate to other test data from the past or be data points that have that have yet to be connected to other parameters as other testing, other insights come about. This is this is a fluid continuing process. So although we may have things that we say are based upon the most current related testing and results, they may change based upon other aspects. That continue to reinforce and subject that test data to additional scrutiny that validates it. Or guess what? There may be other insights that suddenly create other questions that might challenge the paradigm that we have that changes it. So again, it's always steps forward, steps back, leaps and bounds going forward, or things that remain constant, that have other parameters that are going to influence our decision making. This is not again, this is not the fire service and the fire ground of the eighties and nineties and early 2000s. We are twenty-six years into the current century of the 2000 era, and we continue to see challenges. I I think it's safe to say that one of the most significant challenges that I certainly am seeing relative to today's fire ground is the continuing impact of occupancy changes. that are influencing and impacting occupancy risk factors that are not comprehendable. I see the introduction and the changes of methods and materials of construction that continue to focus in on a very delicate balance of engineered structural systems. And this goes so far beyond just talking about lightweight construction. Again, lightweight construction, that terminology is a misnomer. It is very generic. It certainly does not constitute, nor does it will. apply to some of the parameters in which engineered structural systems, their introduction, introduction to our building systems, our occupancies, or structures, as relate to the methods and the materials and the practices of construction. There's some disconnects there, guys, but that's that's going to be left to some some programming that we have planned for 2027. We'll talk a little bit more about our programming in our series finale here. in November. So our next episode, our our actual episode title, at least as we're currently looking at it, will be the Fareground Architect Comprehending Comprehension and Literature Literacy. So again, it's going to be the Fareground Architect Comprehension and the Literacy as part of our series finale here. That'll be coming up and on November twenty eighth, which will be our published program. series finale here on our buildings on fire programming here on the fireengineering.com platform. But again, let's just go back to the aspect. again, there's lessons, there's learnings, there are insights, precedences, there's historical context, there's basis. These are all influencing our condition tactical reflexes. But again, the question goes back to how are you conditioned? How are you currently programmed? Are we maintaining a very healthy perspective? What is the degree of knowledge skills? What's our intuition? What's our recognition prime decision making? What is our naturalistic decision making based upon? Is it based upon comprehension, understanding? Are we looking at predictability? Or is it just stretching the line and going in? Do we have a false sense of security? Do we have a Different degree of risk tolerant tolerances? Does our lack of or our specific type of fire ground experiences in certain building types under certain fire ground conditions based upon the current or based upon past performance capabilities in terms of human performance of our companies and our personnel? Is everything related on a very delicate balance of past performance of buildings? Of fire and company level aspects. Again, I go back to one of the fundamentals of our fire ground fax model, our first arriving construction, tactics, and safety, which is predicated on three distinctive interrelated factors. It's the aspects of the building, it's the aspects of the compartment and fire, and it's the relationship of the company from a human-formed standpoint. Those three all have very explicit and very interrelated complexities that work together. They work together on a positive standpoint, they also work together on a negative standpoint. But it's all about the building and the fire, the building and the compartment. So although I talk a lot about the building and the fire relative to predictability on today's fire ground, it really has everything to do with. The building performance, the fire performance, the fact that the fire performance, whether it be in the compartment, that's either accessible or the concealed spaces of that building, as part of our of our other five domains. But again, they all coincide together. Building compartment slash fire, human performance of our companies, and again, some some great insights that a number of our colleagues are continuing to push the envelope, especially in relationship to human performance on the fire ground, because it goes back to the aspects of the firefighter, the company officer, the divisional officer, safety officer, command officers, different risk tolerances, different perspective, different knowledge, skills and abilities, the ability to comprehend and understand what it is that we are seeing. We talked about size up, we talked about building reads in a couple of other episodes. And again, this is all a part of Application, prediction, and its influence on our decision making, the severity, the urgency, and the growth. Good question here is this: you know, are you having relevant, balanced conversations related to today's demanding fire ground, the emerging challenges related back to the evolving built environment? Now, for some of you, your first do your community is pretty straightforward, right? You're not seeing a lot of challenges, not seeing a lot of changes. But in many other jurisdictions, ch change is paramount. Change exists, and you are seeing the rapid escalation and changes. I made mention a couple moments ago about some of the things that I'm seeing out there. I mentioned about occupancy type, occupancy risk factors, and how those risk factors are being influenced by some changing building types. I think it's safe to say that the emergence of the changes, especially on Main Street, right? Main Street used to be pretty straightforward. We started seeing a lot of changes in in Main Street back in the 50s and 1960s, and again in the late 80s and 90s, and then again early and early 2000s. But I think it's safe to say that the most dramatic changes to Main Street, whether it be in suburban or urbanized in metro areas, has been the introduction of mass timber, especially when we talk about podium construction, raised podium construction. But more importantly, I think the mixed use. multiple occupancy type settings which are are what what I call large area residentials are large area multiple occupancy podium residentials. there are some other terminologies that are going around out there that again are subjective are subject to again what what it is that the author or the instructor is trying to convey and and again it's all good stuff guys and and I certainly appreciate because again If you're able to take that term and apply it to a set of parameters to gain some insights and comprehension of what it is about that building, whatever the terminology may be, then it then the instructor, the officer, the presenters are doing their job to be able to extend that technical basis, to develop some comprehension, get some understanding, and then apply it to your fire ground operations. So I I think a podium construction. Will continue to be one of the most significant challenges affecting us because we do not have any proven lessons and learnings that can be applied to how these buildings are are going to perform. What we do have is an extended series of examples over the last 15 years in which we have seen how these buildings perform under fire conditions in an unoccupied standpoint, specifically under construction. in which building performance has been quite ext extraordinary. The quickness in which compromise and collapse, the rapid fire movement and fire dynamics, the fact that these buildings have challenges relative to code applications, degrees of protection, and other elements that are drawn out of codes and standards and testing. And applications relative to the ratings of materials, assemblies, and systems, and their applications within the confines of the buildings that are being built, and then subsequently to the occupancy of those buildings and other aspects that go into the codes to maintain building integrity. So when we take a look at all of those factors, there, there are a lot of Challenges that are present and certainly a lot of challenges that are forthcoming. If you haven't got a clue of what a podium constructed building is, if you have not walked through some of the newest buildings that have been built that are block-long structures with significant multiple occupancy loading, with significant introduction of mixed-use commercial spaces on the number one and number two floors, let alone what may exist. in the below grade areas, what might exist with the interior donut locations. And again, we actually do a a program that we introduced a couple of years ago and have been presenting nationally on how these buildings are constructed and some of the other insights that have gone into the buildings as well as some other some other subjective perspectives on this is decision making parameters. Again, when was the last time you took a look at the extended degree of stretches that have to go into the buildings and other hazards in terms of habitability of the building and the structures and so forth. So that I think the other aspects of the continuing mix-use applications of our type three adaptive reutilization of type three, type four buildings, the mega mansions as a terminology, and again whether you use the term McMansions, we actually have a series of terms that we introduced a number of years ago. Dealing with large area residentials, mega mansions, gigamans, tetramans, and the super mega mansions that are out there. This is also inclusive of challenges dealing with our commercial hybrid structures as well as the general application of hybrid construction. So again, we've covered this ground in the past on our previous episodes. Take a look at any number of our previous programming: 2025, 24, 23, certainly over the last number of of years to take a look at those programs and some of our more detailed presentations that we have presented and that we will also continue to present in our new platform going forward. Traditionally when we talk about the building facts model and again our building facts acronym of FACTS, first arriving construction, tactics and safety. Whether we talk about them in the tactical window of the first 10 to 15 to 20 minutes, there are some very significant and very applicable, predictable and certainly comprehendable aspects that one has to look at in that 10 to 15 to 20 minute tactical window. Traditional fireground size up and operations have always, for the most part, revolved around some very fundamental. Elements of the building, parameters that we are either predicting, trying to identify, or are known or unknown factors, the things that are known, parameters that we are encountering and go to work. Three, three very common distinctive features: building, fire, observable, not observable, civilians in distress, unknown factors, depending upon building size, footprint, square footage, and so forth. But simply stated, it was the building, parameters, and we went to work. Three. Straightforward aspects. Building, occupancy, and life safety sort of rolled out a little bit further from that. What's the building? Occupancy type, a little bit about construction, construction-based tactics, life safety in terms of civilians in distress, known, unknown, reports of, suspected, initial response communications, initial arrival. We're starting to go to work. We're getting more information on life safety aspects of. Of habitability or civilians in distress, conditions encountered, the accessibility factors, action tasks. We go to work, right? It's pretty straightforward. But again, there are a lot of other parameters from that that are drawn out that we've talked about that are important for you to develop some keen reading the building insights, improving some things that we continue to roll out. We've talked a lot about over the last number of years, how to increase and change up building reads as they relate to a new parameter of size up on today's fire ground. Current aspects of size up depending upon which models you're utilizing, different programming and other aspects. And again, I would refer you back to a couple of our other past episodes on size up on the fire ground and developing fire literacy. We actually had a couple of great programs in the early part of 2000 and twenty-five that I would refer you back to. But again, I think it's safe to say that the parameters in which we are sizing up our buildings have to be somewhat building and occupancy oriented. They have to be based upon some parameters that exist across all buildings. But again, we've got to change that up based upon some things that we have continued to reinforce. relative to our facts modeling. If you're gonna if you're gonna command, tactically engage at a structural fire, you better understand the building. There's limited margin for error on today's fire ground. And again, errors and emissions may be very, very unforgiving. Stretching and operating in a building if you have no knowledge of, no insights, considered derelict, placing you and your company at risk. And guys, it's much more than stretching the line and going in. It's about the building, the compartment of the company. It's about understanding the building writ, its resiliency, its integrity, and the aspects of pre-incident as well as arrival and operational time, the tactical windows. We have to develop a profound level of building and fire literacy. We will continue to stress those related relationships. But again, our challenges are really rooted based upon these aspects of building construction sciences. The methods and the materials of construction. It's having a greater appreciation of building performance, both in terms of the architectural, the engineering, the code, as well as the fire protection engineering elements that go into the building, as well as those factors of how the building will be affected by age, era, and other related Elements the longer this building continues to have a life cycle. There are certainly a much more adaptive fire ground management and operational perspective. There has to be a profound and internalized level of risk management, personal risk management, team, company, and organizational risk management. Risk management. It cannot be based upon what shift or what alarm you're on. It ha cannot be based upon other unidentifiable factors that are emotionally based, but risk management has to be improved, has to be subjected to being maintained, and has to have deliberate rigor for not only the current fire ground we're operating on, but certainly the fire ground of the near future. We have to be very appreciative in And understanding and comprehend the varied conditions that we are going to encounter, which creates a different subset of parameters that one has to deal with. Not all building types, although our building type strategy and tactics is what our size up and operational models of the past have been based upon, we truly need to be able to identify existing or predicted. variables that exist in that building and the fire ground factors that are affecting that building as well as all of the operational challenges that exist in that building, coupled with our resources, the human performance aspects again of our company, the relationship of the compartment and the fire, and those conditions related back to the building. They all have to be Comprehended, they have to be fluid, and we have to apply the appropriate strategies and tactics based upon our personnel resources that are available that may be accessible and relate that back to time. Resiliency, integrity, time are aspects of our tactical windows of first arriving, construction, tactics, and safety. These are all Going to be correlated. And again, they are going to have to come together based upon the focused core areas of building construction, building anatomy, era and vintage, the risk management perspectives of the building, occupancy risks, and occupancy type, human performance elements, the incident management, profiling, and operations, situational safety, and how that relates back to. The core elements of a very dynamic fire ground operation. One of the last things I want to make mention before we close out our episode here, and again, we've gotten into a couple of different things here that I wanted to talk a little bit about challenges, and I want to make mention of here as we close out our program. Those challenges and impacts of our buildings on fire, the building and the fire. Again, it's it's much more than just stretching the line and going in. You know, is it fast water? Is it sustainable gallon per minute flow rates? Is it the fire load package? Is it the compartment building? Is it survivability? Is it is it is it does it have everything to do with survivable spaces? Is it all about just getting in and and conducting our primaries? Is it all about effective deployment and fast water, as I just mentioned? Is it is it all about one or the other? And it and it really isn't any one particular area, it it is certainly a combination of all. But all ultimately revolve around how that fire, if in fact we are dealing with fire induced conditions on the fire ground. Again, there may be non-fire-related conditions that are affecting building integrity and and resilience to integrity and time, weather induced, hurricane induced, it may be age, deterioration, snow, rain, flooding, and maybe a whole variety of other factors, age and deteriorations and so forth. So when we talk about again it being much more than stretching the line, these challenges and operational impacts, I'm I'm just gonna run through a list here that again are gonna revolve around some further discussions that we'll have in our our final episode. This is all about building anatomy, it's all about built environment, today's fire ground, predictability performance, and it's part of a much larger focus area that just does not come about From having a couple of hours worth of drill time under your belt. It's not going to be coming about and being attained by sitting in on a couple of seminar programs at a local, state, or national conference. It really is a diligent effort across a variety of different topical areas and so forth. So, and we're gonna talk a little bit more about that in our in our series finale when we talk about what I call what I term the fire ground architect. So the fire ground blueprint is really about all of these other aspects here, about challenges and so forth, and this correlated, interdependent area of construction, tactics, and safety that's part of our facts model. It's gaining this further appreciation of building writ. It's also related back to understanding and having an appreciation for the tactical windows that some buildings give us, which is unlimited. To a very narrow window that's sometimes driven by minutes and seconds of operational time to be able to get in, effect a rescue, effect a search, identify entrapment, identif identify civilians in distress, work on their removal while we try to manage fire extension and fire propagation. We may not be able to put these fires out, but it's all going to be based upon the most predominant level of risk and one of the most significant. Operational tasks that we have, and that is the protection of life during the conduct of our operations on the fire ground. So let me talk about some of these influencing emerging influencers. I'm gonna go scrunt through this list here that I have in front of me. And I'm just gonna give you that for pause to think about again, today's evolving built environment, the demanding fire ground, and this one remaining aspect that again, when I mentioned this earlier on. We're talking about performance-driven operations. The built environment again is developing faster with greater component complexities, with greater hazards and risks to firefighters and to firefighting than the tactical risk models are providing. Your local, regional first due, again, it may be simple to complex, maybe overwhelming. It may be again constant, subtle changes, slow or rapid change. slow or rapid decline. It may be exponentially elevating your levels of risk. Sometimes it may be indistinguishable or it may be unrecognizable. And sometimes it might be right smack in front of you. So let me run through this list here for you guys to think about here. But again, emerging trends, just the overall aspects of the built environment. What does your built environment, your first do, second do, your greater alarm area, your mutual aid responses, what does it look like? Yours may be very very stable but what about the next do or that mutual aid response area or that next neighboring community that you may be responding to. So it's the built environment. It's the impact of social, economical and ecological green movement trends. It's engineered structural systems, components, systems, assemblies, construction, the process, and the methodologies. One of the continuing challenges of large area residentials In large area commercial buildings, mega giga tetra mansions, mega giga, and tetra commercial firegrounds. It's the introduction and continuing trend of mass timber as well as cross-laminate timber construction, as well as the continuing trend of mixed-use podium construction systems, leading to again a mixed-use occupancy structure that has a variety of code-based. and construction-based parameters that may pose significant operational challenges. Hybrid commercial construction system, lightweight and light gauge metal, typically in our type 3, excuse me, in our type 2 construction, both light gauge metal and light gauge structural steel component systems. It again is the light gauge metal and light gauge structural constructed systems, typically in our type two building applications. It is the adaptive reuse, renovations, and conversions of our buildings. It is our high risk vacant commercial industrial properties, our LVCPs. It is our vacant and derelict buildings, both residential, commercial, and industrials. So again, when we talk about abandoned derelict buildings, we talk about abandoned occupied. derelict buildings. They have a level of risk that has to be comprehended, has to be understood, has to be applied, has to be recognized, and has to be built into your decision making and has to be built into your deployments and whatever those deployments may be. It is the uncontrolled illegal occupancy. It is the pop-ups that are present in our row house and row frame buildings, predominantly in our metro and inner city areas. And again, we're gonna We're going cover pop-ups again in early 2027. It's the rapid changing building materials and methods of construction. It's the aging of our buildings and occupancies, the evolving integration of engineered structural systems, our engineered structural systems as they relate to ESSs. It's the influence of our fire load packages on fire suppression and operations. It is that building's susceptibility to compromise and collapse. It's the size, the complexity, the footprint. It's the square foot and the volume of our building. It's the continuing challenges of limited resources and also the challenges of human performance to the resources that we have available. It's the conflicting best practices. It's the method methodologies and the models. Diminished or loss of fire service experience. Inadequate or platicated risk management, inadequate. Pre-incident building planning, the lack of building intelligence. We just don't know our buildings. We don't know our construction. We think we know, but we really don't. Ineffective collapse zone management. No building or fire literacy that ends up leading to historic history repeating events. No building related collapse zone management when we do have identified or perceived collapse potential. We are not effectively managing. The collapse zones, and again it's a continuing, evolving, adverse trend. It's the evolving construction sciences related back to the methods and the materials. It is the type three and type four adaptive renovations, construction site fires, both small and large scale, and sometimes on a very, very large scale, that end up impacting significantly our commu our communities. It is the integration. and the institutionalization of cross-laminate timber and mass timber in our type two and type one construction, the emergence of mass timber construction, misuse, mixed use occupancies, the developing paradigm shift in fire suppression practices, commercial structural mixed-use occupancies, faster fire propagation and fire dynamics and fire behavior. The increasing susceptibility to collapse and compromise, decreasing time to engage and operate, diminished occupancy escape time and survivability, narrowing windows of tactical engagement, increasing demands for efficiency and effectiveness, and certainly the continuing challenges or the gaps related to knowledge, skills, abilities, tactical competencies, education, experience, accountability. Proficiency, rigor, and fortitude. There's there's a lot to be said there. I'll say this. I think that some of our adverse trends revolve around the commercial hybrid fireground, the row house and row frame fire ground in our urban and mixed use areas, the continuing issues dealing with and again I put this in quotation, the vacant structures. I'd much rather use the term our derelict buildings, our abandoned derelict structures. are occupied derelict structures that again have significant varying levels of risk. Large area residentials, our mixed use occupancies, our commercial hybrids, our small to large footprint commercial buildings. I think it's safe to say that our small footprint commercial 30,000 square foot or less are going to continue to be a very significant challenge on today's fire ground. Our adaptive reutilation of our type threes and types fours, the podium mix use, the mass timber, low rise, and I'll say this: the data centers, our warehouse distribution, our mega warehouse, and our mega commercial buildings are all going to be subject to significant conversation in the near future. When we go beyond traditional tactics and operations and fireground size up. I use this term related back to the reality perspective. And that reality perspective that relates to everything around the building and around the occupancy, around our tactical and strategic decision making, and the influences on what and how and when we do that revolves around habitability. And it's simple to say this: how and will the building allow us to conduct the dominant Interior or proximityal operations? And if so, under what conditions and for what extended period of time? What is the degree of risk? And what implementing process or methodologies are we going to have? How will that building allow us to be in that building? How will the habitability of that building affect occupant survival? How will it affect our operations, whether they be interior or proximal? And if so, under what extent of time? So think about that. We're going to talk a little bit more about habitability because it is a cornerstone of our concept of the fire ground blueprint, our understanding of the four building reads, our application of first arriving, the tactical windows of 10, 15, and 20 minutes. Of again construction, influencing tactics, influencing safety, which is really our risk management, and putting that all together relative to the five and five. So we'll talk more about that relative to the defining the influencing aspects that define our fire ground, the involving built environment, a demanding fire ground that affects us each and every day. Again. The question back to everybody. What do you know about your buildings? What is your building and fire literacy? So, with that being said, we're going close out our edition of our Buildings on Fire program here. We've talked about building and fire challenges, talked a little bit more about the Fire Ground Blueprint. And again, trying to sort of sort of bookend our conversation that we've had this year on our program. And certainly some of our other program series over the last couple of years. we did some quick numbers here. We've we've actually published out over 250 podcast and now webcasting programs going back all the way to our first podcast that we did on with fire engineering back in 2007, subsequently with our our programming on Firefighter Nation with our firefighter firefighter Netcast program with our great producer at the time, Lieutenant John Mitchell, how that eventually evolved by taking it to the streets and and taking our programs on the phenomenal fire engineering platform here to to have a home over the last 10 years. So between 20 and 16 and here we are sort of rounding out two thousand and twenty six. we've we've had a significant number, well over a hundred podcast episodes, dealing with the focal point of again, one of the, if not the most important topical areas on the fire ground, and that's dealing with the built environment, dealing with building construction, and dealing with the influence of building construction on our decision making and on every level of our operations. So we'll talk more about some aspects here. Our final our series finality is scheduled for November 28th. And again, we will talk about our expanded conversation on the fire ground blueprint. We'll talk a little bit about the fire ground architect that each and every one of you needs to strive to attain. We'll talk about comprehension and developing both building and fire literacy. And we'll have some other insights here on our season finale coming up here on our Buildings on Fire podcast. So again, it's been a privilege, it's been an honor to speak with all of you. we've got one episode to left here on our fire engineering platform, and we look forward to speaking to you speaking with you during the program that we will be that'll that'll be published. in November and it'll be up obviously during the the remaining period of of of two thousand and twenty six. So take a look at some of our other episodes. for those of you that are planning some programming training for 2027, please reach out. For those of you that want some reading list information, please reach out. We're accessible on social media. We'll get some things posted here on this episode as far as some DM and contact emails if If you don't know how to get a hold of us, it should be pretty easy. Just do a quick search online, email address, cell phone numbers, DM me, get a hold of us, and me and we'll chat with you related back to your particular questions. If you're looking for some training on building read size up tactical approaches, we've got a number of exceptional building construction programs that focus in on the building, on size up operations, on a variety of building types. and again, more importantly, we do take the classroom to the streets with our reading the buildings walking lecture tours. again, where we start in the classroom with our lectures and we transition out into your streets in your first do to talk about size up, talk about construction. we were the first to bring it forward into the United States and to the American Fire Service, and we continue to strive to provide that operational excellence and and really together an exceptional training opportunity. So reach out to us if you have some interest in in bringing our programs to your department, to your region, or to your fire schools and conferences. So more to come in our last finale episode. Again, this is Chris Nom signing off. stay safe. There's certainly a fire or job being worked somewhere. It's everything to do with understanding our building and increasing your knowledge and skill set being building and fire literate. So again For buildingsonfire dot com, thank you so very much for tuning in.