The National Fire Prevention Association's NFP 5000 code does not allow wood-frame construction for buildings five stories or higher, senior fire protection engineer Gregory Harrington said.
The building code in use in Virginia allows such construction for some apartments if the building has sprinklers and fire-resistant walls and doors.
The March 26 fire hit the five-story student apartments under construction at 933 W. Broad St. before any of those had been installed. With little more than a wood frame in place, the structure burnt to its concrete underpinnings in a half-hour, while embers set off fires in dozens of other buildings in the area.
Virginia Commonwealth University officials and the building's developer, RAMZ LLC of Pittsburgh, have said that with sprinklers and fire-resistant walls, the building would have been safe for students to live in.
RAMZ owned the building and VCU planned to lease it for student housing. Both have said they hope to rebuild.
"We're confident that once it is done, with sprinklers and all fire-resistant assemblies in place, it is absolutely the safest it can be," said VCU's associate vice president for facilities, Brian Ohlinger, a retired colonel for the Army Corps of Engineers.
VCU officials said the apartments were designed to have four wood-framed stories on top of a concrete ground floor, and that up to four stories of wood framing is standard with commercial apartments. They said it complies with the code in effect in Virginia.
It is because the four stories of wood construction are on top of another story that the NFP 5000 code would not approve the structure, Harrington said.
Harrington said his association's code reflects the thinking of the 108-year-old nonprofit group's fire prevention experts.
While the NFPA code allows modern-style wood-frame construction for four-story buildings, it says five-story buildings should only be made with steel framing or masonry. Old-fashioned - and rarely used - construction techniques using thick, slow-to-ignite wood beams and posts also is allowed.
As with other codes, including the codes in effect in Virginia, the aim is to give people inside a building enough time to flee if the structure catches fire. The height of a building is a key consideration because it affects how long it takes to exit.
VCU's Ohlinger said he has to deal with what the Virginia code says, not the NFP 5000.
"The code is what we have to work with. You start going away from the code, then the designer has the dilemma of what should you do differently," Ohlinger said.
The building codes of Phoenix, Ariz., and California are based in the NFP 5000 code, and the association's code has been adopted at least in part in Rhode Island and the city of Pasadena, Texas. The code in use in Virginia has been adopted in 43 other states, as well as in Washington, D.C.
Richmond Building Commissioner Claude Cooper said his investigations of the fire will include a review of whether the building code, and codes governing construction, are adequate. He said such a review is routine after a major fire.
Related:
