- Author
- Zukowski, E. E. | Marble, F. E. | Rannie, W. D.
- Title
- Large Building Fires: Experiment and Analysis. Final Report.
- Coporate
- California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA
- Sponsor
- National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD
- Report
- Final Report, January 1970, 59 p.
- Contract
- CST-902-5-69
- Keywords
- building fires | experiments | conservation | combustion | ignition | pyrolysis | thermal radiation | burning rate | convective flow | heating | plumes | enclosures | flashover | room fires | combustion gases | smoke
- Abstract
- Because of its inherent complexity and detail, as well as its rather tenuous relationship to existing combustion theory, the propagation of uncontrolled fires in large buildings remains one of the unsolved problems facing our cities. On October 13, 1969, a fire in a Los Angeles apartment claimed the lives of eight people and sent more than a score to the hospital for various degrees of burn and smoke inhalation. As the fire developed, flames spread quickly up the main stairwll, blocking exits from apartment units, forcing some to jump from upper floors. Within a matter of minutes, all three floors were so involved in fire that normal escape was impossible.