- Author
-
Hopkinson, J.
- Title
- Venting a Smoky Fire in a Hotel Stairway.
- Coporate
- Fire Research Station, Borehamwood, England
- Journal
-
Fire Safety Journal,
Vol. 10,
No. 1,
11-17,
January 1986
- Keywords
-
fire investigations
|
hotels
- Abstract
- A fire started within a hotel staircase which smoke-logged the stairway. Smoke leaked on to adjoining lobbies which formed part of the escape routes for upper floor guests rendering them useless as a means of escape. Whilst the majority of guests were rescued from their bedroom windows by the fire brigade, one guest was overcome by smoke within the top floor lobby in attempting to escape. By calculating mass flow rates it has been possible to explain the observed movement of smoke and to demonstrate that with the venting of the stairway, there would have been very much less smoke logging of the lobbies with a resultant life and property saving.