MikeC
Silver Member
The photos below are from a recent fire in a HUD townhouse complex that was built in the early 70s. Sometime in the distant past, someone installed a second ceiling over the original ceiling. I can only assume that staples wouldn't have enough depth to penetrate through both ceilings, so nails were used instead. Now, because of the tongue and grove / hidden fastener design, the size of the nail heads needed to be small. No glue was used and the nails had about .2 inch heads. I doubt that this was malicious and I image that the installer felt he had done a good job finding an alternate fastener and a good job on the installation of the ceiling system. I am currently assuming that this installation is at least 2 decades old.Anyway, onto the story. A very young child was home alone and sleeping on the couch that is placed against the front wall when the fire started in the next room. A neighbor was alerted by the smoke alarms and rescued the child from the house. The fully staffed fire department is about 1/2 mile away and was on scene within 3 minutes of receiving the dispatch. Upon their arrival the ceiling system had already failed and blocked the front windows and door. There was never any fire in the living room. The only damage is from heat and smoke. It is likely that the neighbor saved the child's life. Firefighters would likely not have been able to find her under the ceiling panels.So, next time somebody wants to do something that isn't quite right, but seems harmless .... think about this post and send them to this post. A simple harmless fastener issue with a ceiling installation almost cost a child her life.I was given permission from the photographer to use copies of these copyrighted photos for training and investigation purposes as long as he was given credit for them.
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