#building failure

Turkey has a long history of devastating earthquakes, and unfortunately, its cities and infrastructure have not been able to sustain the force of these natural disasters. In recent years, Turkey has suffered from a series of earthquakes that have caused significant damage to buildings, resulting in loss of life and economic damage. Despite efforts by the government and private sector to improve…

Lagos State’s Building Collapse Syndrome

By Olamide Udoma

On Friday 12th September a six-storey guesthouse at the Synagogue Church of All Nations in Lagos State. As of the 18th September, 80 people have been declared dead, while others were left with various degrees of injuries. Investigations into the disaster are ongoing but so far the Lagos State Government claim that approval for the building was not obtained and therefore the…

Earthquakes aren't just a West Coast event. Centered in Virginia, Tuesday's earthquake resulted in reports coming from New York, Massachusetts, Vermont and Georgia. A few came from as far away as Chicago. Exactly what damage was caused will continue to be reported over the next day or so. But one visible building failure as a result of the earthquake was chimneys.

On the right, Christopher Hartman works on the roof installing a tarp after the earthquake tore down parts of the chimney on his dad's office in Mineral, Va. (Photo by Scott K. Brown/AP)

Here, the debris fell into the yard. Fortunately, children weren't playing there at the time. What happens if the bricks fall toward the house? One of the three fatalities in the 1992 Landers earthquake was a child sleeping next to a fireplace and the one fatality in the 2000 Napa earthquake was a child that was having a birthday party sleep-over next to the fireplace.

A solution designers can offer when preparing the construction drawings of a new home is specifying sheets of plywood above the ceiling framing to reduce the chance of bricks falling through a sheetrock ceiling.