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The Hidden Highway: How HVAC Networks Turn Apartment Buildings Into Fire Conduits
In multi-unit residential buildings across the United States, the same ductwork that regulates temperature and air quality can become an invisible corridor for smoke, toxic gases, and even flames during a fire. Engineering vulnerabilities embedded in shared HVAC infrastructure have long outpaced the building codes designed to contain them. A new generation of fire-barrier technologies is now emerging to close that gap—but the retrofit challenge is immense.