[faithfulfrank]

I am by no means an expert here, especially on Florida construction. I'm but a humble guest who owns a home just south of you all. My Florida home is 15 years old, and wood frame, not CBC construction. It is in The Plantation, and it is all electric.

I have designed and built my own home up here in NY, and have run black pipe gas lines many times. Flex pipe is newer, and we see it more and more. My fire experience has all been in NY as a Professional firefighter for over 18 years. In terms of fire and gas lines, one needs to remember that even with black iron pipe in homes, the connection to gas dryers and gas stoves is flexible pipe.....so no home is completely black iron pipe.

Now, I have no experience to know if there is a special concern with flex pipe in an attic as it pertains to a attic fire caused by lightning. The comment that firefighters just stood by because they were concerned with the gas line "blowtorch" does not make sense to me. I would assume that you have a gas meter next to your home, and that unless the home was fully involved, that gas meter would have been assessable. If so, any fire dept would have just turned it off. That would have turned off the gas throughout the home and any gas in the lines would have quickly been burned off.

Now if there is some reason that a gas line could not be turned off, then yes, we let it burn off, so as to not let the raw gas travel. This is especially true with Propane, which is heavier than air, whereas Natural Gas is lighter than air. We would still aggressively attack the rest of the fire though, hopefully minimizing the home's damage.

There is a point though that if a fire is so widespread that nothing could be saved, the fire dept would switch to a defensive posture, protecting the other homes close to the burning home.

So, I'm sorry I could not be more helpful. I do know that while the home is being constructed and everything is exposed, it would not cost that much more at all to use all black iron pipe. It is much more costly to replace it after the attic area is enclosed.

The other point I was making is that homes now, with truss construction instead of rafters, etc, are almost disposable. Trusses are just short pieces of 2x4's held together with cheap steel gussets that come apart within minutes of a fire. Most times the roof is too far compromised to be saved even before any fire dept even gets there, if there is any fire in the attic area. That is why firefighters have a saying, "Don't trust a truss". We do not ventilate a roof if it is truss construction and fire in in the attic.

Just my opinion, but if I were building a new home today, it would have a residential sprinkler system. The cost is reasonable, and your insurance premiums are lower if you have it. They are safe, not ugly anymore, and it is proven they save homes with hardly ANY damage. If every home was sprinklered, I'd almost be out of a job.

I apologize for the long post.

Frank