Fire stops critical to preserving three-decker housing

Built as working-class housing in the late 19^th and early 20^th Centuries, the wooden three-story homes still dominate some urban neighborhoods. Though they have fallen out of favor, the structures continue to provide affordable housing in areas badly in need of it.

As decision-makers consider how to preserve these buildings, one of the primary areas of concern is fire safety due to balloon framing construction. Homes built with balloon framing, with long, continuous lumber, offer an unobstructed path for fire to spread quickly from ground level to the attic and roof.

Fire stops between floors can be created in a variety of ways. Insulating foam sealant and nominal lumber like a 2x4 nailed at various distances to break up the balloon framing can help prevent fire from spreading.

Gut renovations can add more fire blocking to break up the exterior walls and retrofit flooring with more fire-resistant materials also helps. Renovations, can be costly, though, going well beyond $100,000 for even basic design changes.

New York City has two very large buildings dedicated to answering the 911 calls of its five boroughs. With more than 11 million emergency calls annually, it makes perfect sense. The second of these buildings, the Public Safety Answering Center II (PSAC II) is located on a nine-acre parcel of land in the Bronx. It’s an imposing 450,000 square-foot structure—a 240-foot-wide by 240-foot-tall cube. The gleaming aluminum cube risesthe equivalent of 24 stories from behind a grassy berm, projecting the unlikely impression that it might actually be floating. Like most visually striking structures, the building has drawn as much scorn as it has admiration.