Blaze: The Forensics of Fire Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)
This book provides good information about fire behavior. One common theme of this book is the speed with which indoor fires spread. The rapid, sometimes nearly explosive growth of fires is a major factor in people not evacuating premises sooner. The rapid fire growth owes to the feedback effects of indoor fires. One of these effects is the flashover, a common phenomenon. Another is the "trench-hugging" effect, as exhibited by the King's Cross London subway fire. Still another is the radiative effect of a low ceiling, combined with a flammable plastic wall covering which releases burning drops onto yet-nonignited seats, as exemplified by the Stardust disco fire in Dublin, which grew from an innocuous one-seat fire to a multiple-seat, multiple-row deadly conflagration in only 2-3 minutes, and totally consuming of the interior in merely 5 minutes.
Modern interior materials, notably polyurethane, can produce vast amounts of carbon monoxide and suffocating, blinding smoke in just a minute or two. Although the author Faith does not discuss this further, the water-decomposing temperatures of HTA's help the reader understand why the magnesium-thermite incendiary bombs of WWII could not be extinguished by water. And, although the destruction of the World Trade Center on 911, of course, predates this book, the information about the One Meridian Plaza fire of 1991 helps the reader understand the former, albeit on a much smaller scale. In both cases, several floors of a high rise burned out of control, completely engulfing the floors, and could not be put out. Although the One Meridian Plaza building did not collapse, extensive cracking of rock material and the twisting of metal girders almost did cause a collapse.
A major shortcoming of this work is its lack of diagrams. It would be so much easier to follow what the author is saying about the British subway fire and the Dublin disco fire had these been provided. Hopefully, a subsequent edition of this book will rectify this situation.



Click Here to see more reviews about: Blaze: The Forensics of Fire

Click here for more information about Blaze: The Forensics of Fire