Denver building inspectors make 2,000 visits to construction sites each week.
The Emerson Place Apartment construction site that burned on Wednesday, killing two, has passed every city inspection it has requested.
The site at 18th Avenue and Emerson Street had three inspections between Feb. 28 and Mar. 5.
"Three times in the last week, is that unusual?" asked 9NEWS reporter Marshall Zelinger.
"It's very common that we would have inspectors at the same project or site multiple times in the same week," said Denver's Building Official Scott Prisco. "The speed of which construction is happening in Denver, they ask for partial inspections."
He said these are called "rough inspections" and take place as the work of each area is completed.
Contractors request city inspectors to make visits as each facet of the construction project is completed.
"There may be multiple rough inspections, and you need a rough inspection from each discipline, and then ultimately the framing inspection is approved after all the disciplines are approved for that framing," said Prisco.
"How many times would an inspector go visit a site, the size of that construction site?" asked Zelinger.
"Probably, a couple dozen times," said Prisco.
"From beginning to end?" asked Zelinger.
"Yes," said Prisco.
Viewers were curious about the wood construction of the apartments.
Steve emailed Next asking:
"Building a hi rise with wood? What gives here? Worth investigating??"
On Facebook, David asked:
"5 story housing building…out of wood. Shouldn't even be allowed by code."
"It's usually a financial decision, and across the United States residential construction projects, similar to this, are the majority of the time, are made out of wood," said Prisco. "It's pretty typical. It's not unique to Denver or this region, it's across the United States that wood is used for this type of residential construction."
He said wood construction is allowed for buildings that are less than 75-feet tall.
"The first floor, and then below grade, that's all concrete and steel construction, and then that's called the top of the podium when the wood starts," said Prisco. "There are certain requirements, though, it can only have four levels of wood. Sometimes you can get an optional fifth floor if you rate the construction on the exterior wall."
In one of the permits for "commercial construction," the 'scope of work' has the following notation:
"Special inspection required for the application of 2-hour fire-resistant-rated intumescent coating on steel angles supporting the south edge of the post-tensioned concrete slab and for the structural items listed on sheet S1.0 of the construction documents."
"For this project specific, that special inspection would have been for the lower portion, that steel and concrete construction," said Prisco. "The work above that was wood and wood doesn't require a special inspection because that doesn't receive spray fire proofing."
"Do you need to review and make sure none of your inspectors missed anything?" asked Zelinger.
"No, I feel very confident that we did everything. Our inspection team, what they were inspecting, would have no impact on whether a fire occurred on this site," said Prisco. "We do everything that we can to make sure the buildings are constructed in accordance with the code, and we do outline and notify folks when things are unsafe."
He said anything dealing with worker safety is in the hands of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
"Our inspectors, their primary role is to ensure that the construction that's being completed is being done in accordance with the building codes, not life safety during construction," said Prisco. "That being said, if our team is out on a job site and sees an unsafe condition, they will definitely mention it."
Fire suppression systems are not required until construction is complete and ready for occupancy, meaning there are no temporary fire sprinklers installed during construction.
