How To Survive a Fire MUST READ

How To Survive a Fire MUST READ

As I write this, a four-story building in New York City is reported to have collapsed during an explosion and subsequent fire. Although details are sketchy at present, it made me think about what you should do in a circumstance like this to protect your family.

Every year, thousands of people are killed or injured in fires in the U.S. Many of these deaths and injuries can be prevented with knowledge of the nature of fire. You must understand the following:

1) Most people who die in fires don’t die because of burns as much as from asphyxiation (suffocation). Fire consumes available oxygen that you need to breathe, and produces harmful gases and smoke. Inhalation of even a small amount of these can disorient you and affect your ability to respond appropriately. Even if there is little smoke, some poisonous gases are invisible and odorless. Some people who die in bed appear to have not woken up at all, most likely a result of toxic inhalation.

2) Fire spreads rapidly. A small fire can go out of control in less than a minute if not extinguished rapidly. Many house fires occur at night when everyone is asleep. Smoke and flames can engulf an entire building before you are even aware of it. Sometimes, rooms can combust all at once, a phenomenon known as a “flashover“; opening hot doors can cause an explosive fire effect, called a “backdraft“.

3) The environment in a fire is dark, not bright as you might think. Black smoke can easily make it impossible to see clearly as well as cause eye irritation. This leads to confusion as to where the best avenues of escape might be.

4) Heat from a fire can burn you, even if you’re in a room that isn’t on fire itself. Breathing in super-heated air can burn your lung tissue and is more fatal than burns on the skin. Here’s my article on smoke inhalation.

5) Hot air rises. Most people understand this concept, but not the extremes you’d experience in a fire. Air that is just hot at floor level becomes much hotter at eye level. This is why you should stay close to the floor as you make your way out of the building.

6) People unwittingly feed fires by keeping flammable clutter around the house. Don’t collect old newspapers, for example, or other combustibles if at all possible, especially near heaters or stoves.

What To Do In A Fire (continue reading)

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