February 3, 2005

Safety from Ceiling Collapse

Recently I experienced a fire with a ceiling system I will call “rare”. Maybe someone has seen it before, but I haven’t. It consisted of ½” drywall nailed to rafters, a grid of wiring for radiant heat and a layer of plaster as the finish.

Click on the pictures to see the larger images.

Above the ceiling was 10”-12” of blown insulation. The fire was in the attic above this ceiling. Access was made (ceiling pulled) and a hose line was operated into the attic area as ventilation above was performed.

Text book right?

The fire was extinguished fairly quickly but this is when it got scary.

As overhaul began, this ceiling started letting loose. It was falling in 4’X8’ sheets. There were rooms remote from the fire that began to fall as well.

Luckily only one FF was grazed by a falling piece and uninjured.

I did some math and figured this out:

4’X8’ section of this ceiling system weighs approx. 170 lbs.

With 1” of water atop (20 gal.) the weight goes to 330 lbs!

That is “only” 20 gallons of water! And I know it took more than 20 gallons to put the fire out, so it had to weigh much more.

This reinforced the practice of staying in a safe place while pulling ceilings.

I just want to remind us all to stay in doorways or archways while pulling ceilings. Keep your egress between you and the area you are working. And if traveling through rooms, try to stay close to the walls so if the ceiling does come down, it hopefully misses you.

Thanks for your time.

Stay Safe,

John Anderson