Not just what and how, but why!
The deaths of Captain Matthew Burton and Engineer Scott Desmond in a residential fire on July 27, 2001 were the result of a complex web of circumstances, actions, and events. The Contra Costa County Fire Protection District and National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) both investigated this incident and have published reports that … Read more
Application of the B-SAHF (Building, Smoke, Air Track, Heat, & Flame) organizing scheme for critical fire behavior indicators to photographs or video of structure fires provides an excellent opportunity to develop your knowledge of fire behavior and skill in reading the fire. This video clip was recommended by Captain Virgil Hall, Tualatin Valley Fire & … Read more
My last post (Gas Explosions) examined flammability and ignition of fuel/air mixtures as related to gas explosions. Deflagration of a fuel/air mixture can result in a significant energy release, when confined, this results in a significant pressure increase. Pressure If a confined gas is heated, pressure will increase as indicated in Gay-Lussac’s Law. Gay-Lussac’s Law: … Read more
Extreme fire behavior can be categorized as a step event which results in a sustained increase in heat release rate or a transient event that results in a brief increase in heat release rate. Transient events involve combustion of unburned combustion and pyrolysis products. The speed of this combustion process can vary widely depending on … Read more
Two incidents recently point to the hazards presented by explosions which may occur during firefighting operations. Pittsburgh, PA On March 25, 2009, firefighters in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania were operating at a fire in a three-story apartment building of ordinary construction when an explosion occurred on Floor 2 while WPXI was videotaping fireground operations. Watch the video … Read more
In Fire Gas Ignitions and Language & Understanding: Extreme Fire Behavior, I pointed out the ambiguity in definition of terms related to extreme fire behavior. In the structural firefighting context, the term extreme fire behavior is used to identify phenomena that result in rapid fire progression and present a significant threat to firefighters. Rapid fire … Read more
On March 24, 1994 Captain Drennan and Firefighters Young and Seidenburg of the FDNY were trapped in the stairwell of a three-story apartment building by rapid fire progression that occurred as other companies forced entry into the fire apartment on the floor below. The FDNY requested assistance from National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) … Read more
Fifteen years ago tomorrow, three members of the Fire Department of the City of New York (FDNY) lost their lives while conducting search in a three story apartment building located at 62 Watts Street in Manhattan. Captain Drennan and Firefighters Young and Seidenburg were trapped in a stairwell by rapid fire progression that occurred as … Read more
What is Extreme? There is some debate about the use of the term extreme fire behavior (some of my colleagues indicate that processes such as flashover is not “extreme” but simply “normal” fire behavior). I contend that flashover would potentially be a normal part of fire development, but is also extreme, at least in the … Read more
25 Years Later Firefighters Scott Smith and William Duran died as a result of flashover during a search and rescue drill in Boulder, Colorado on January 26, 1982 (Demers Associates, 1982, August). This incident has particular significance in that it was one of the major influences in the development of National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) … Read more