There is good news for boosters of a modular system of tied dual-plate walls field-filled with concrete—dubbed SpeedCore for its potential to slash superstructure construction time compared to steel frames with reinforced concrete cores.

Six months after an explosion and fire destroyed a grid-connected energy-storage battery facility in Surprise, Ariz., investigators are still trying to figure out all that happened. 

For more than two decades, science has recognized that building fires have become hotter, faster-spreading and more toxic.