Construction Maison

In January 2015, a massive fire in Edgewater, N.J., demonstrated that buildings with sprinkler systems are not always protected against fire. The blaze destroyed 240 residential apartments and displaced 500 people from the Edgewater Avalon apartment building . The fire began when a maintenance worker’s plumbing torch accidentally ignited wooden wall studs , and flames quickly spread throughout the structure. Fifteen minutes passed before workers called the fire department . In that time, the fire spread throughout combustible void spaces (between walls and floors) and soon engulfed the building. Emergency personnel from 35 different cities and towns ultimately responded to the incident. Thankfully, there were no fatalities. Immediately after the blaze, people asked why the fire was so devastating. The building had sprinklers, after all. Shouldn’t the sprinkler system have extinguished the fire? To make matters worse , this building had already burned down 15 years prior during i...

A new study maintains that two-thirds of Denver renters plan to move to another city, a figure higher than the national average, with most listing high rent costs in the Mile High City  as the main reason. At the same time, however, so many people from other places want to move here that the actual number of renters in Denver is likely to remain steady in the near future and could actually rise. These are among the findings in a provocative report from Apartment List. As laid out in the following Q&A with analyst Sydney Bennet , who was heavily involved in the project, renting Denverites have a variety of reasons for wanting to relocate. But the number of those who are considering such a move because of long commute times or concerns about safety, for instance, pale in comparison to folks who simply are having a hard time stretching their dollars far enough to keep a decent roof over their head. As the study notes, the 67 percent of Denver renters who are looking at other lan...

A solution has been found to pave the entire stretch of Ridge Road between Warren and Ford. (Photo: Bill Bresler | hometownlife.com) Supporters of a Ridge Road paving project on Canton's west side had hailed the plan with one caveat — a small section would remain a gravel road for lack of money. Not anymore, apparently. Township Supervisor Pat Williams has convinced Wayne County to share the $600,000 cost of paving a 900- foot section south of Hanford, meaning all of Ridge between Warren and Ford roads can now be paved. That's welcome news to residents like Rich Felcher, who lives in a subdivision off Ridge Road. "It only makes sense to do the entire project at once," he said. "I'm ecstatic that it's getting paved." More: New Canton task force targets road woes , how to pay for fixes More: Road repairs coming to 'war zone' Canton Center Felcher and others have said it could pose a safety hazard to pave most of the road and leave the res...

(Photo: Nadezhda1906 / iStock / Getty Images Plus) This story was made possible by support from readers like you. Help Truthout report on the urgent issues of health care, climate change, US foreign policy and more: Make a tax- deductible donation today . When April's paternal nephews first came to live with her, one was two months old and the other was one-and-a-half years old. She had to fill out the paperwork necessary to retrieve the older boy from foster care, where he had been placed months earlier after being removed from his mother. Under California law, if a potential caregiver -- any adult in the household or any adult who might have "significant contact" with the children has an arrest or conviction for anything other than a minor traffic violation -- they must apply for a criminal record exemption . Granting the exemption is at the discretion of each county -- and often the social workers assigned to the family. This has led to an uneven application of the ...