| Over the course of three different days, Assistant Chief and Training Officer Curt LeRoy, coordinated three different training sessions for members of the Fire Department.
Training was conducted in the following three areas: Session 1 - Bailout, Session 2 - Situation Response, and Session 3 - Flashover.
A Flashover is the near-simultaneous ignition of most of the directly exposed combustible material in an enclosed area. When certain organic materials are heated they undergothermal decomposition and release flammable gases. Flashover occurs when the majority of the exposed surfaces in a space are heated to their autoignition temperature and emit flammable gases. 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/ft²*s (20 kW/m²). (Source Wikipedia)
An example of flashover is when a piece of furniture is ignited in a domestic room. The fire involving the initial piece of furniture can produce a layer of hot smoke which spreads across the ceiling in the room. The hot buoyant smoke layer grows in depth, as it is bounded by the walls of the room. The radiated heat from this layer heats the surfaces of the directly exposed combustible materials in the room, causing them to give off flammable gases via pyrolysis. When the temperatures of the evolved gases become high enough, these gases will ignite, throughout their extent. (Source Wikipedia)
Flashover is the most dangerous point of a fire and puts the firefighter at his or her most vulnerable point. There are several warning signs that firefighters are trained to look for including how the smoke reacts as gasses build up in a room. No two situations are alike and it is extremely important that firefighters get as much training in this area as possible. |
