Building construction and fire services #2 Essay

Building construction and fire services #2 - Essay Example Lightweight wooden binds are assembled by 50 mm Ãâ€" 150 mm, 50 mm Ãâ€" 100 mm, or 50 mm Ãâ€" 75 mm (2 Ãâ€" 6, 2 Ãâ€" 4, or 2 Ãâ€" 3-inch) timber joined together by gusset plates (Malanga, 1995, p47). Just like every structural element, these trusses are debatably vulnerable to failure when expose to fire or extremely high temperatures. Wooden houses or ceilings are famous for quick fire spread and early disastrous failure in as small as 4 minutes of fire involvement (Malanga, 1995, p44). Unguarded lightweight wooden or even steel binds will stop working after 5 to 10 minutes of contact to fire or extremely high. Binds can fail from contact to heat alone exclusive of any flames. For wood trusses, 100 °F (53.8 °C) is the decisive temperature (Malanga, 1995, p46). Metal gusset plates in wooden binds, unless corner-nailed, can distort and fail extremely fast when exposed to high temperature. Even though, both wooden and steel trusses might be confined with fire-retardant treatments to develop their fire opposition, a majority of them lack this essential matter and; hence put the lives of people at