whats the odds of surviving a flashover cause me an three of my fellow fire fighters came up close an personal to a flash over an thankfully no one was hurt except one fire fighter was when the roof collasped
I think the underlaying issue for this discussion should be centered a little differently. What were you doing in the building to be exposed to flashover AND a roof collapse? You should be very thankful to be alive, nevermind the "stats" associated with how you cheated death.
I've always heard that unless you are no more than 5 feet from the door you are pretty much screwed. The temps get too hot to handle and will result in failure of your turnout gear and also the worst, death. Did you guys happen to notice the signs of what was about to happen? With the roof collapse it sounds like you shouldn't have even been inside the structure. Ventillation should have been a #1 priority. Weather it be verticle, horizontal, or mechanical. With the collapse I would have chosen maybe horizontal but we really can't critique much since we weren't there to see it first hand. Anyway it's great to hear you are still with us. Your angels were with you that day.
How do I put this....??? You are one lucky SOB......and whats more....No, I can't say it........Next time learn from your screw-up.....you might not be so fortunate ....Brunicini had a few bits of wisdom ref to firefighting...." No matter how much you like to fight fire, someday you will get a fire you really wish you didn't have." And another for the record...."Sometimes it's impossible to recover from doing the wrong thing first." Paul
Permalink Reply by Marc on February 9, 2009 at 4:17pm
This past Saturday we got a basement fire. The units that responded were TF29, RA29, E11, BC11, EMS11, LF61, E26 RA861, DC2, {SQ10, AR2, EMS18: requested as additional}
TF29 was first on scene and reported smoke coming from the basement.
Members of Engine 29 proceded to the basement where a flashover took place
one FF was trasported to a local area hospital
injureies where not life threating (un-know status of the FF at this time)
5+ gallons of Gasoline was reported in the basement. This is what is believed to has cause the flashover.
Once this was discovered SQ10 was added as an additional unit.
one FF was trasported to a local area hospital
injureies where not life threating (un-know status of the FF at this time)
i know that surviving a falshover is much easier to surivie then Flashpoint. Flashpoint is where everthing with in a room catches on fire with in 2 seconds. Also i know that a FF caught in a Flashpoint only has 3.5 seconds to get out of the room before the FF himself catches on fire.
Flashover are much easier to survive because it happens quick, all the vapors catch fire and go out with in a second.
Stay safe
Marc Hurwitz
Los Angeles City Fire Department.
Permalink Reply by Doug on February 9, 2009 at 4:27pm
"i know that surviving a falshover is much easier to surivie then Flashpoint. Flashpoint is where everthing with in a room catches on fire with in 2 seconds. Also i know that a FF caught in a Flashpoint only has 3.5 seconds to get out of the room before the FF himself catches on fire.
Flashover are much easier to survive because it happens quick, all the vapors catch fire and go out with in a second."
Whomever taught you this should not be teaching. A flashover is not easier to survive. When a room flashes over it has reached its flash point.
flashover is the near simultaneous ignition of all combustible material in an enclosed area when the majority of surfaces in a space are heated to the temperature at which the flammable gases that are being produced from the combustible materials in the space are hot enough to ignite. Flashover normally occurs at 500 °C (930 °F) or 1,100°F for ordinary combustibles, and an incident heat flux at floor level of 1.8 Btu/s*ft2 (20 kW/m2)
ALL combustibles in the room have reached their auto-ignition temperature. (this includes firefighters in the room) Most firefighters that survive flashovers were in close approximation to the flashover rather than being in the room with flashover. I agree with Doug here that your definitions are a little "off"
well the three guys i went in with thought they could knock it down till we ran out of water then it flashed on us we thought it was going to be one of them five minutes an it would be knocked out
boy we thought wrong