r/Firefighting • u/Wumaduce • 1d ago

Photos Cambridge, MA - What are these signs?

Post image

What do the circled signs mean? I know FDC is the fire department connection. The sign under that is max pump in pressure.

Someone said it means you guys aren't supposed to enter the building to fight a fire. If that's the case, doesn't it completely defeat the purpose of the FDC and standpipe being live?

77 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

18 comments sorted by

View all comments

87

u/AFirefighter11 1d ago

That red placard with the white “X” you circled is a firefighter hazard marking. Departments post those on vacant, under-construction, or otherwise compromised buildings to let crews know what we’re walking into.

The plain red box with a slash ( / ) usually means the structure has some issues, but we might go in with caution. The full “X”, like you see here, is a big red flag: no interior firefighting operations unless there’s a known life hazard. Floors, roofs, or walls could collapse, so it tells us to keep operations defensive and stay out.

It’s basically a quick visual warning system, so if a fire kicks off there, crews don’t waste time guessing whether it’s safe to enter.

•

u/J-rodsub 19h ago

That’s super interesting. How does this get past code inspection and what not? Is that a conversation between the building owner and the fire marshals office or what? (Coming from a city in the south)

•

u/Patriae8182 13h ago

During some types of renovations, large portions of structural members may be shored up then removed depending on the future use of the building.

Some major renovations involve removing large portions of the sprinkler systems for periods of time (usually not too long). A building that has poor structural health and little fire suppression is a recipe for collapse.