On a recent inspection in Cottonwood Heights, Utah, we were asked to review fire damage in a multi-unit residential building. The layout is straightforward: Unit 1 sits at the base, with Unit 5 directly above. The fire appears to have started near the HVAC system in the entry hallway, which also serves as the bathroom sink area. Gratefully, this ceiling cavity was fire blocked, and the blocking did its job. While the lumber directly above the sink was badly charred, the surrounding bedrooms, kitchen, and bathroom were only mildly damaged. In essence, the fire didn’t go out—it went up.
In Unit 5, the flames likely traveled through the framed wall between the bathroom sink and kitchen, moving unseen within the cavity between sheetrock layers. Though this wall was not open for inspection, the burn pattern suggests fire passage here. The most severe damage lay above, where ceiling joists and rafters were blackened, brittle, and in some cases already removed. What had been mild damage on the lower level became destructive in the attic, where the fire consumed the structural heart of the roof system.
The scope of replacement is broad, and a piece-by-piece list would be nearly impossible. The guiding rule is simple: any lumber affected by fire must be replaced or sistered with an identical member overlapping three feet into undamaged wood. This includes the bathroom ceilings in both units, where framing must be rebuilt, as well as the attic rafters, some of which have burned through bottom chords. Where secure reinforcement cannot be achieved, the roof will need to be removed and rebuilt. Though fire blocking spared much of Unit 1, the flames’ upward path left Unit 5 and the attic with deep scars that will require more than repair—they will demand reconstruction.
