A sign for the times
In hope of preventing another Hackensack tragedy, a bill requiring truss-constructed buildings to be identified by a sign has been introduced by a New Jersey state lawmaker.
“It’s a result of the fire in Hackensack that killed five firefighters last July,” says Assemblyman William P. Schuber, whose district includes Hackensack. “There needs to be some way for firefighters to readily identify truss-constructed buildings.”
The bill would require that a sign be permanently attached to the left of such a building’s main entrance door. The fluorescent sign would be in the shape of a triangle, and enable firefighters to identify a truss-constructed building from the outside.
Five firefighters were killed in Hackensack last July while fighting a fire in a truss-constructed building. Several years earlier, five Ridgefield firefighters were killed in a Cliffside Park, N.J. bowling alley, also a truss-constructed building.