Hotels and condo/apartment buildings of wood-frame (Type 5) construction that are up to four stories tall have sprung up across the country. You can find them in cities, suburban areas and even in rural areas near highway interchanges. Almost universally, these buildings are being constructed with lightweight wood trusses and engineered lumber materials. They're also generally being sprinklered, which may make most fire chiefs confident that a fire in these buildings would be small and easily handled by a single fire company with minimal resources. However, there have been a number of working fires in these occupancies, and to handle a fire in one, we must understand certain things about the buildings' construction and protection features.
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