- Author
- Babrauskas, V. | Krasny, J. F.
- Title
- Upholstered Furniture and Mattresses.
- Coporate
- National Bureau of Standards, Gaithersburg, MD
- Report
- NFPA FPH 1686,
- Book or Conf
- Fire Protection Handbook. 16th Edition. Section 12. Chapter 15, National Fire Protection Assoc., Quincy, MA, Cote, A. E. and Linville, J. L., Editors, 12/120-28 p., 1986
- Keywords
- upholstered furniture | mattresses | flammability tests | ignition source | flame spread | heat release rate | cigarettes | smoke | toxic gases
- Identifiers
- materials ranking
- Abstract
- Upholstered items (upholstered furniture and mattresses) play a major part in residential fires. It is estimated that there were approximately 80,000 such fires in 1982, causing 1,900 deaths, 10,000 injuries, and $500,000,000 in damage. Approximately 65 percent of these fires were caused by cigarettes. Other major ignition sources were matches, electrical appliances, and hot objects. Cigarette initiated fires lead to approximately 30 percent of residential fire deaths and are the single largest cause of such deaths. However, they account for only 10 percent of the residential fires, and 20 percent of the injuries. Mortality and morbidity in cigarette initiated fires are thus inordinately high. About 40 percent of the victims of cigarette fires are persons other than the smoker.