Friday, May 21, 2010 Recently my crew went out inspecting on a inspection of a building that has been under renovation for approximately 2+ years. This was the first time that I was in the building in the last 3 1/2 years that I worked for this department. As we walked through the door, I immediately asked one of the guys to go back to the truck to retrieve the digital camera.

As you can see from the pictures the sprinkler system runs through the trusses on half of the building and under the trusses of the building which supports the second floor.

The large concrete pad that is supported by the 4 columns is what really caught my eye. Upon a closer inspection, one of the 5 original concrete columns had been removed. I don't think we would have ever expected this to be in a building such as this. This could create a huge problem for us if we were to ever enter the building under fire conditions.

New stairwells have been added approximately a 12" void space between the wall and the staircase.After a little further investigation in the building, it was found that all of the walls have been constructed this way.

From the interior of the second floor it, appears that the building at one time had a flat roof, due to the span-crete above the second floor. However from the outside, all we see is a pitched roof.

The ladder on the three pieces of wood over the stairwell really seem to add to this inspection.

We though we would pass this on. Even though this building may be one of a kind, there is that chance that someone else may have something similar in their area and prevent them from getting hurt.