The Rutherford Fire Marshal wants the town to consider an ordinance designed to alert firefighters ahead of time regarding which one- and two-family houses in the borough have lightweight structural components that make them potentially more susceptible to sudden collapse in the case of fire. The ordinance is aimed at giving local firefighters a heads up on which buildings could be more dangerous to enter during a fire.

The ordinance states that houses that have “engineered lumber in the form of prefabricated I-joists, truss joists, truss roof systems, truss floor systems, and similar materials or components… pose an increased collapse potential when exposed to fire condition.”

Fire Marshal Paul Dansbach said that traditional lumber floors usually begin to warp or sag and sometimes even feel soft under foot before they collapse, thus alerting firefighters ahead of time that they’re in danger.

“With dimensional lumber there’s more time before collapse,” said Dansbach. “The floor will start to sag first… [with lightweight lumber] the size of the collapse is larger and comes earlier.”

The ordinance requires that the construction official identify any buildings with these materials either when issuing the certificate of occupancy for new buildings or when conducting inspections of buildings receiving new alterations or continued certificates of occupancy. A list of these buildings is then forwarded along to the fire marshal, who will maintain an inventory of all such structures and notify the fire chiefs and company officers whenever a new building is added.

Houses listed in the inventory would then receive a reflective symbol that would be placed on the building’s electric meter. The fire marshal’s office will be required to conduct an annual inspection to make sure all buildings listed in the inventory have the sticker in place. Anyone who attempts to remove one of the decals could be subject to a $500 penalty.

Dansbach said the ordinance was proposed not in reaction to any recent incidents or close calls but as a general safety measure. He said he didn’t know of any other town in the South Bergen area that had adopted such a policy, but he noted that River Edge in upper Bergen County had done so recently.

For the past two decades The National Fire Prevention Association has conducted studies and reviews of lightweight wood trusses and the perception that they are more prone to quicker and greater fire damage. In a 2009 report on firefighter fatalities, the NFPA indicates that full construction details are not available, but that between 2000 and 2009 lightweight wood trusses and/or pre-engineered I-beams were involved in seven incidents of collapse that claimed nine lives.

E-mail: okeefe@northjersey.com