MILWAUKEE --
As firefighters put their lives on the line to save others, a common manufactured wood I-joist holding up floors in newer and remodeled homes can pose a deadly risk.
The beams are lightweight, strong and inexpensive to use but they have one very serious flaw.
Milwaukee fire Capt. Ted Stribling lay unconscious and badly injured inside a burning home one evening in May. The last thing he remembers was walking into the blaze in a home on Second and Meineke alongside fellow firefighter Tony Rueda. He has no memory of what happened next.
"Tony and I fell through the floor. Tony did not lose consciousness and he rescued me," Stribling said.
The floor beneath their feet gave way, sending the two firefighters crashing to the concrete basement below.
When pulled from the blaze, at first glance, firefighters thought Stribling was dead. But thanks to his colleague, both men escaped -- injured, but alive.
When Stribling returned to the scene days later, he noticed something alarming.
"And what I could see was these wafer thin I-beams made of composites of wood and glue," Stribling said.
The older home had been remodeled with newer manufactured wood I-joists, supporting the floor.
Following the blaze, 12 News went inside that home with a Milwaukee firefighter, and saw why those floor beams failed when the firefighters stepped on them.
"They're perfectly good contrstruction materials. They can make a fine home. The problem with them is, they burn really quickly," Stribling said.
They burn so quickly, in fact, that they have proven deadly for many firefighters.
A veteran firefighter was killed when the floor collapsed below him in a Green Bay home in 2006, trapping him inside the blaze.
The Department of Homeland Security report describes what happened last year when a Tennessee firefighter crashed through a hole in the floor of a burning home as follows:
"A firefighter who had been behind firefighter Shawn Daughetee reached down into the hole, but was unable to reach his hand. Firefighters made contact with him, but were unable to retrieve him. Firefighter Daughetee's remains were recovered after the fire was controlled."
The floor that failed was constructed with engineered lumber.
"There's very little warning time. Floors don't tend to sag before they fail, and so firefighters are being caught, very much off guard with this type of failure," Waukesha County Technical College fire instructor Dr. Tom Schlei said.
Schlei and his staff helped 12 News visualize the danger these manufactured beams can pose to anyone in a fire.
12 News lit a flame below both a manufactured I-joist and a traditional solid wood board, put a wieght on top and watched.
Just 20 seconds into the experiment, charring on the manufactured wood was much more noticeable than that on the solid wood board. Within five minutes, a hole began to form in the center of the I-beam.
At 13 minutes into the blaze, the area in the middle of the i-beam had burned away leaving just the bottom piece of the beam to support the weight above. Moments later it was gone.
Less than 15 and a half minutes into that blaze, 12 News could see the board had failed. The solid wood was still strong enough to step on.
Fifteen-minutes and 21-seconds after the first flame is perhaps the time firefighters might just be entering a burning building.
"They'd be possibly doing search and rescue, they'd be doing an interior fire attack," Schlei said.
Firefighters assess a house before they enter.
"In my job, when you see a house, you look at it and try and imagine what it's gonna look like when it's on fire and these houses will burn really fast," Stribling said.
That's the danger which might force firefighters to rethink how they battle a blaze -- to take a more defensive approach and, perhaps, take less risk entering a building. That could pose a danger to anyone.
"It's not just firefighters that are at risk here, it's homeowners too," Schlei said.
Stribling explains.
"It's the general public that has to be concerned, because that means the building might burn a little bit longer, because it's going to take me that much longer to get up that staircase," Stribling said.
12 News checked with the Metropolitan Builders Association of Milwaukee, who is aware of the danger I-beams can pose in a fire. They said the building industry takes fire protection very seriously and that the products they use meet all building codes.
MBAM also said the industry is currently investing in research, working to develop new fire-resistant building products and working to educate firefighting agencies on how best to fight fires involving the most common building materials used today.
Firefighters told 12 News this is a hazard they simply have to be aware of and prepared for. When they respond to a fire, if they think the building materials used are the kind that are going to fail more quickly they have to take that into account before deciding how or when to enter a burning home.
Some fire officials said residential sprinklers are a great safety tool but homeowners should practice good fire safety.
The beams can be a hazard to someone in the home several minutes after a fire starts but by that time, smoke can be an even greater danger. Homeowners should make sure they have good working smoke detectors and an escape plan.
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