Fire Behavior and Combustion Unit VI Essay
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Feb 20, 2024
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Unit VI Essay
Daniel McMahon
Columbia Southern University
FIR 2303 Fire Behavior and Combustion Professor Tim Whitham
April 20, 2023
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Unit VI Essay
After reading through all the reports from the firefighters, one thing holds true for every encounter during this incident. Visibility was a major issue for all phases of the incident. When we recall every building upon the scenario, each crew reported that heavy smoke became one of the issues that they encountered during the incident. We will discuss what factors influenced the smoke and the behavior of the fire, while also discussing what impact the soot and aerosols had on the ability for firefighters to see during the incident. Factors the Influenced Smoke and Fire Behavior
When this fire first began it was fed by a constant heat source with enough combustible materials to allow combustion to maintain while extending to the cabinets. While the fire was burning, it began to use up the oxygen remaining in the fire room. When this occurred, the fire began to form soot due to the under ventilated burning Gann, R. (2014). This allowed a build up of soot in the apartment, which in turn spread throughout the apartment. Gann, R. (2014) states that, “80 percent of the thermal radiation from a luminous (sooty) flame comes from the soot.” With the soot spreading through the apartment and then the firefighters making entry, this allowed an oxygen deprived atmosphere to become enriched and the combustion process began again. The radiant heat then began to ignite the couch and then parts of the floor, which allowed more toxic gases into the apartment. Once again, the conditions began to cool down which started the incomplete combustion process until the failure of the sliding glass window. With the
weather conditions having winds of up to 50 miles per hour, this building quickly became a wind
driven fire and allowed the smoke that was built up into the apartment to become superheated again and conditions began to deteriorate rapidly. Allowing the smoke particles to build up and spread throughout the structure made it difficult for firefighters to stop the spread of the fire once
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the buildings doors and windows began to fail allowed the wind to feed what was an already out of control fire. Impact that soot and aerosols had on firefighters
Visibility during any incident is vital to the ability for a firefighter to perform their duties.
If a firefighter is unable to see where they are going, it is easy to become disoriented and confused on where you are in the building even without the presence of heat. The soot conditions in this scenario are told by the firefighters as being thick and black. At one-point firefighters describe the soot as being so thick that it merely smeared on there facepiece when they tried to clear it off. The visibility through smoke is described by Gann, R. (2014) as referenced to one’s ability to see exit signs. In this case, the aerosols were allowed to form into a
mist due to the heating and cooling of the fire multiple times. When the smoke was spreading through the apartment, it cooled initially from the original fire which allowed condensation to form Gann, R. (2014). Once the firefighters made entry and allowed those gases to reheat and ignite other combustible products in the room the soot was allowed to cool again which effected the other crews entering the building. Allowing the repeated build up of soot and aerosols made it almost impossible for the firefighters to see during the incidents. Bouguer’s Law describes the
intensity of a beam of light decreases as the smoke intensifies or becomes thicker in nature. Not only could the firefighter not see, the soot and aerosols began radiating heat onto the firefighters’
causing burns and even to firefighters who had donned their PPE properly.
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References
Gann, R. (2014). Principles of Fire Behavior and Combustion
(4th ed.). Jones & Bartlett Learning. https://online.vitalsource.com/books/9781284081879