As I watch the video of the structure fire you are able to understand from the ignition source how the fire developed into a flashover as the firefighter ventilated the window on the bravo side. When the kerosene was spilled you have the vapor that will burn, therefore, the flammable liquid is vulnerable to ignite easily when the molecules vaporize to form a gaseous fuel-air mixture that would be in the flammability limits as they ventilated the window. (Gann & Friedman, 2015, p.118).
“Combustion is an exothermic chemical reaction between the fuel and an oxidizer resulting in the generation of substantive heat and often light” (Gann & Friedman, 2015, p.79). When I watched the video, and I’ve learned how fires almost always include oxidation reactions between several combustibles and the oxygen in the air will happen. These reactions release heat, and that is called exothermic reaction process which caused the combustion from the kerosene heater that was running all night. When you have fuel that is spilled, the heating temperature can be raised with a violent reaction. The exothermic chemical reaction requires oxygen and when that happens you have an explosive hazard. It
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When the motion of combustion products and fresh air can be caused by a fire located in the structure. As the gas in each room is assumed to be divided into two similar layers, and the layer next to the ceiling will contain hot combustion products and one next to the floor which contains fresh air. All buildings consist of a series of compartments, and they are all connected by open doorways. The windows and doors seemed to be open on the alpha side. There was a smoke ejector at the front door during this fire which could have influenced the fire. If you have the presence of wind, and by the way, the fire was coming out of the front of the building it was possibly influenced by air movement within the building. (Gann & Friedman, 2015,
One of the deadliest nightclub fires in United States history occurred on May 28, 1977, a busy Memorial Day weekend in the suburbs of Cincinnati. The Beverly Hills Supper Club was a popular nightclub located in Southgate, Campbell County, Kentucky in the greater Cincinnati area. It was located on a hill less than 1000 ft. from the highway on seventeen acres of land just three miles from downtown Cincinnati (Beverly Hills Supper Club Fire D-1). It has since become a case study for its numerous code violations and the behavior of the fire from ignition to building collapse. While there is no one contributing factor to the significant loss of life at this facility, a study of the building’s history, the sequence of the fire’s progression, and an analysis of the fire’s chemistry can provide some valuable lessons to the future firefighter.
The Armenian genocide ruins Vahan Kenderian’s picture-perfect life. Vahan is the son of the richest Armenian in Turkey and before the war begins, he always has food in his belly and a roof over his head in the book Forgotten Fire by Adam Bagdasarian. Life is absolutely quintessential for Vahan, until the war starts in 1915, when he endures many deaths of his family, losses of his friends, and frightening experiences in a short amount of time. He is a prisoner of war early in the book and is starved for days. As he goes through life, he is very unlucky and experiences other deaths, not just the deaths of his family. Vahan ultimately becomes the man his family would want him to be.
Act 1 of Mr. Burns was the only act in the play that places it characters in a casual setting. It was easy to decipher the type of characters the actors were portraying in the scene. For example, the actor who played a meek character ported this by taking up as little space as she could and crouching behind objects. Also, two characters were pretty intimate with each other. They cuddled around the fire when discussing the probability of a power plant shutting down and shared soft smiles with each other. I felt that the characters were allowed to be themselves in this scene compared to the other acts. In Act 2, the characters were at work that called for them to have a professional mindset, even though they were familiar with each other. The
On the fateful and unforgettable afternoon of June 17, 1972 Hotel Vendome experienced yet another fire. Actually it experienced several fires in different locations on this date. Electricians working on the first floor reported smoke coming from the upper floors, and a bartender reported smoke in the basement. All occupants in the basement café were safely escorted out, and 3 engine companies, 2 ladder companies, and 1 District Chief arrived on scene noticing ...
The Our Lady of Angels school house was a type 3 construction. The school was divided into two wings the north and south wings. The fire started in the basement of the north wing near the boiler room and burned undiscovered in a stairwell until the heat of the fire became too great and broke a window adjacent to the staircase under demolition by fire and caused an influx of new oxygen to fuel the flames. Some important things to note about the construction of the school are: One, that all major exits and the stairwells were made of combustible materials. Two, that there was only one fire exit located at the end of the hall on the second floor in an unprotected corridor Near the stairwell close to the source of the fire. Lastly, there was no fire protection, there were no sprinklers or fire pull stations located in the north wing and all of the 5 extinguishers that were present were located seven feet off of the ground which made access to them incredibly difficult even for adults.
Due to the size and age of the building (built before 1976), safety regulations said that the nightclub did not have to have a sprinkler system, and it thus did not have one. The fire originating on the stage quickly filled the club with toxic smoke from the burning polyurethane and other building materials. In the shear moment of panic, the people caused a scene of chaotic proportions: stampeding towards the only exit they knew--the way they got in. Over 400 people all trying to get out one door at the same time caused a massive pileup trapping the majority of people inside. Just prior to the fire department arriving on scene the super heated gases trapped in the building ignited causing what is called a “flashover." Temperatures exceeding 932 to 1112 degrees Fahrenheit inst...
Catching Fire: How Coooking Made us Human by Richard Wrangham is a fresh perspective on the evolution of humankind. Wrangham has made a concentrated effort to prove that humans have evolved particular adaptations, like bipedalism, due to the introduction of cooked foods into their diet. In his book, he is legitimately arguing that humans are the way they are because early on in human evolution, early man discovered fire, discovered the joys of cooked foods, and developed all sorts of fascinating traits still being utilized today.
To begin with, during the year of 1870 and 1871 Chicago was facing extreme drought. During that time period the city of Chicago was built mostly from wood, making everything extremely flammable. Richard Bales author of “The Great Chicago Fire” states in an online article, “October 8, 1871, just after nine o'clock, a fire broke out in the barn behind the home of Patrick and Catherine O'Leary at 13 DeKoven Street. How the fire started is still unknown today, but an O'Leary cow often gets the credit.” Although we are not certain what and how the fire started, we know that it quickly spread. Legends say that the O’Leary’s cow knocked over one of the fire lamps therefore starting this massive fire. You might be asking yourself, how is it possible for a small fire to spread so quickly? “Hot air rose from the flames and mixed with the cool air above it, creating convection whirls. Witnesses called them "fire devils." A fire devil could pick up a burning piece of wood and send it flying. New fires started where the flaming objects landed. (McHugh)” Firefighters were exhausted from fighting a large fire the night before; and were sent to the wrong neighborhood at first. After finally arrivin...
At 8 am that morning, a longshoreman smelled smoke coming out of hold No. 4. He alertly notified his co-workers and they moved several bags of ammonium nitrate fertilizer and found flames between the cargo and the hull. They tried putting out the fire with a jug of drinking water and fire extinguisher but their effort ended in vain while the flame got worse. Some crewmembers started hauling boxes of arm ammunition out of hold No. 5 (to avoid explosion!) In hold No. 4, some crewmembers called for a hose line to distinguish the fire but the ship captain, Charles de Guillebon, interfered because he did not want water to ruin his precious cargo. Instead, he or...
“A Wall of Fire Rising” is a story of poor peasant working man named Guy who is trying all his best to provide a decent living and a sincere meal and also desired the need to escape their native country for the greener meadows in America.
We scurried to the garage, carrying paper and other “burnables.” Matches were always better than lighters for experiments such as these. For our first experiment, we ignited napkins and paper, but the excitement quickly fizzled. Having lost our initial adrenalin rush, we began to search for more dangerous “flammables.
In Jeannette Wall’s book The Glass Castle, the narrator and author Jeanette has had various terrifying encounters with chaos and destruction. She was burned cooking hot dogs when she was young, frozen in the winter, and starved when her family was low on money. Each time, she has pulled through and survived. In The Glass Castle, fire is a symbol representing chaos, destruction and fear. Jeanette has fought many battles involving neglect, starvation, and poverty but she has always pulled through these destructive experiences just like when she was a child burned from the hot dogs.
; objects below this line show no damage. These cases are the ones that mass media tend to cover most and is what most people think of when they hear about spontaneous human combustion. Nearly half of the cases are "bedroom burnings" Another common case under the fatal category are the witnessed combustions, in which people are actually seen by witnesses to burst into flames. Most of the time, witnesses claim that there was no other source of ignition and/or the flames were seen to come directly from the victim’s skin. These cases present the fact that SHC has more to do with the supernatural than science.
Sunday September 2, 1666 at 2 a.m. was the day when the fire began (Cowie, 59). It had all began in a baker’s house due to a spark that was “left” in one of his ovens. ‘”, all that was needed was a spark. This was provided at the house of Thomas Farynor, the King’s baker in Pudding Lane…”’ (“London’s Burning: The Great Fire”, 1). In this area was known as a poor area and it was also very dirty. All the houses were made out of wood, which fed the fire and it started to spread. The baker’s house was the first house to burn down and that is also where the first tragedy took place. The wind was strong during this time and as it blew it would push the fire and help it spread through the city. The people started waking up due to the smell of the smoke and they tried to put the fire out as fast as they could. The fire fighters even tired to stop the fire but it was to big for one truck to handle. One of the residents ran to the Mayors house to warm him of what was happening. When told of what was happening, “…the L...
...r it is arson, an uncontrolled camp fire, or a cigarette butt it doesn’t take much for humans to spark a disaster. Yet there is as well a few set by good old Mother Nature. On top of the effects on the earth as well as humans, there is only one thing we all can do and that is listen to our old pal Smokey the Bear when he says, “only you can prevent wildfire.”