Fire Case Studies


"Fire is only as dangerous as you let it be."
- Unknown


Amusement Park - Rides Fires

  • Haunted Castle at Six Flags Great Adventure (May 11, 1984)


High Rise Fires - Reference Paper by John R. Hall, Jr. (June 2009)

Abstract
In 2003-2006, there were an average of 13,400 reported structure fires in high-rise buildings per year and associated losses of 62 civilian deaths, 490 civilian injuries, and $179 million in direct property damage per year. Four property classes account for the majority of high-rise fires: office buildings, hotels, apartment buildings, and facilities that care for the sick. Automatic fire protection equipment and fire-resistive construction are more common in high-rise buildings that have fires than in other buildings of the same property use that have fires. The risks of fire, fire death, and direct property damage due to fire tend to be lower in high-rise buildings than in other buildings of the same property use.


High Rise Structures

  • Asch Building - Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, New York, NY ( March 25, 1911)
  • Grenfell Tower (Facade) Fire - Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, West London (June 14, 2017)
  • 1 New York Plaza, NY, NY (August 5, 1970)
  • MGM Grand Hotel, Las Vegas (1980) - (AE 537 Wiacek)
  • First Interstate Bank, Los Angeles, CA (May 4, 1988)
  • One Meridian Plaza, Philadelphia, PA (February 23, 1991) - (AE 537 2010)
  • Schomburg Plaza, NY, NY (March 22, 1987) Failure Case Starter
  • Condiminium Fire, Clearwater, FL (June 28, 2002) Failure Case Starter
  • Caracas Tower, Caracas, Venezuela (October 17, 2004)
  • Windsor Building, Madrid, Spain, (February 12, 2005)
  • Hotel Mandarin Oriental, Beijing, (February 9, 2009)
  • Westvaco Office Building, New York, NY
  • Joelma Building, San Paulo, Brazil
  • ?, Seoul, South Korea
  • Winecoff Hotel, Atlanta, GA (1946)
  • Hotel LaSalle, Chicago
  • Monte Carlo Casino, Exterior Facade Fire, Las Vegas, (January 25, 2008)
  • Hotel Vendrome, Boston,MA (June 17, 1972)



Historic Structures

  • Cadillac Building, Bellefonte, PA (December 22, 2009) HIstoric Significance: Designed by Anna Wagner Keichline in 1916 as a Cadillac Dealership. She was Pennsylvania's first registered woman architect having received her degree from Cornell.


Long Span

  • McCormac Place Exhibition Center, Chicago, IL (January 16, 1967)

Nightclubs, Restaurants and Theatres

  • Beverly Hills Supper Club fire (May 28, 1977)
  • Cocoanut Grove Nightclub Fire (Nov. 28, 1942) - 492 Fatalities
  • Lame Horse nightclub - Perm, Russia (November 5, 2009)
  • The Station nightclub - West Warwick, RI (February20, 2003) (AE 537 2010)
  • Iroquois Theatre fire (December 30, 1903) Worst Fire in US History - 605 Fatalities
  • Xinjiang Theatre Fire (1977) - (694 Fatalities), Feb. 1977

Transportation

  • Rhein-Rhur Airport Fire - Duesseldorf, Germany (April 1996)
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Warehouses and Low Rise Commercial

  • Charleston South Carolina Warehouse Fire & Collapse - Super Sofa Store (2007)