2. Folks, I just received a rather disturbing series of pictures of new construction currently going on in New Jersey. Apparently these new-style wood trusses are commercially available and no longer use the metal "gusset plates" that we are all familiar with. This new breed of firefighter-killers is simply 2x4 Finger Jointed lumber (yeah, it's not even dimensional lumber) held together by little spots of glue where the webs meet the chords. Check out the attached pics... You also can see that these particular trusses are installed in townhouse-style occupied multiple dwellings. All that's holding them up is a 2x8 or TJI sill plate that's anchor bolted to the block sidewall. I'm not an engineer, but it looks like it's actually the dead load and live load from above that holds the house of cards together. My dad is a commercial sales manager at a large lumberyard. He is going to further investigate the manufacture and engineering of this product and I'll keep you advised of anything important to our operational safety. If a standard gusset-plated truss will fail in less than five minutes of fire exposure, how long will these toothpicks stand up? How about the added weight of 2 or 3 firefighters with equipment trying to make a vent hole and removing some of the engineered dead load providing the stability to the system? Just food for thought. This stuff's out there... It's just a matter of time 'til it pops up around here. Many nationally recognized instructors are now recommending popping a decent-sized inspection hole in the ceiling immediately inside the point of entry and on each floor of any building with smoke or fire showing. If nothing else, you'll get a real good idea of how cheap the construction is! Be safe & look up! Chiefs, if you think this might be something useful, please forward on to the rest of the region.
