Square and X
On many but certainly not all vacant buildings there is a spray painted marker on the front. It is a square with an X inside. It is usually done in orange but I have seen it in red or green. Does anyone know exactly what this means and who sprays them on? DOB, HPD or…
On many but certainly not all vacant buildings there is a spray painted marker on the front. It is a square with an X inside. It is usually done in orange but I have seen it in red or green. Does anyone know exactly what this means and who sprays them on?
DOB, HPD or NYFD?
Had these cases before for filing of existing buildings when was still new to expediting procedures. I went in to HPD and they said as stated from FDNY to show conditions of vacant buildings.
Thanks for this information. It makes sense. Last year a broker sent me the youtube link below to a property he was selling in East New York. I really had to laugh about this one. It had the square and X along with “RO”. A broker will always see the upside.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VMIRWNZZBA&feature=youtube_gdata_player
FDNY VACANT BUILDING INFO http://sageauthoring.com/fdny/construction/vacant.pdf
I once heard a homeowner saying they were offended by the fire department spray painting their building – the chief responded that he was offended by their hazardous eyesore and walked away.
Very interesting. Thank you for that.
I heard the same as what BFAG said from firemen. Cross means floors are not sound enough for NYFD to enter.
Scratch previous, it’s been a while. The boxes indicate a hazardous vacant building. The appearance of the box indicates the level of hazard. Plain box = entry permitted. Box with one diagonal line = proceed with extreme caution and make no heroics to save structure. Box w/ X = do not enter due to unsafe conditions which may have been caused by previous fire on building partial collapse. Some other symbols you might see are RO for roof out or FO for floor out. The fire company that made the marks are supposed to leave their numbers but as well but they rarely do.
It’s applied by FDNY post fire or building inspection. The diagonal line from (bottom to top) indicates to firefighters which direction to head when entering space. An X indicates to responding companies not to enter (surround and drown). If there are the initials R.O. accompanying the box it indicates the roof is out.