Fire/Smoke Mask Recommendation?

[Ura-Ki]

For what it's worth, I specialize in High Mobility, High Risk, Forest/brush fires, and I deal with structural fires tossed in for good measure! SO I come at a lot of these things from a prevention perspective. I live in a risky area with dry conditions, and lots of wind, so home construction needs to be well thought of, and active ongoing prevention is a way of life. I do not fight a structural fire to try and save, I fight to prevent it, or I fight to keep it from spreadding to other structures!
etrain16 you did ok, but I think you knew the the risk you took! This is why a lot of new construction has large gaps under the doors and are missing inside door sweeps. This is also a double edged sword as a contained fire can feed off the "free air" from out side the contained area, remember, heat draws air upward creating a updraft.
Idealy, your situation with a large floor gap would allow you to discharge your first extinguisher under the door and then you could open the door with a second bottle and finish it off! I strongly disagree with the building codes demanding this, as I have seen first hand how it works, solid core doors and floor sweeps would slow a fire pretty well and contain it in the space well enough to allow you to fight it, or buy you time to get out, AND prevent it from spreading as far as it would with the gaps and missing sweeps! The best thing you had going for you was a chained smoke detection system and having fire bottles handy and easy to access

 

[etrain16]

For what it's worth, I specialize in High Mobility, High Risk, Forest/brush fires, and I deal with structural fires tossed in for good measure! SO I come at a lot of these things from a prevention perspective. I live in a risky area with dry conditions, and lots of wind, so home construction needs to be well thought of, and active ongoing prevention is a way of life. I do not fight a structural fire to try and save, I fight to prevent it, or I fight to keep it from spreadding to other structures!
etrain16 you did ok, but I think you knew the the risk you took! This is why a lot of new construction has large gaps under the doors and are missing inside door sweeps. This is also a double edged sword as a contained fire can feed off the "free air" from out side the contained area, remember, heat draws air upward creating a updraft.
Idealy, your situation with a large floor gap would allow you to discharge your first extinguisher under the door and then you could open the door with a second bottle and finish it off! I strongly disagree with the building codes demanding this, as I have seen first hand how it works, solid core doors and floor sweeps would slow a fire pretty well and contain it in the space well enough to allow you to fight it, or buy you time to get out, AND prevent it from spreading as far as it would with the gaps and missing sweeps! The best thing you had going for you was a chained smoke detection system and having fire bottles handy and easy to access

You make an interesting point about the doors. I live in a slightly older home, early 70's. Interior doors are definitely not solid core, but they do fit tight and almost all the way to the floor. Sweeps are only on exterior doors. It's interesting though, with that door closed, the fire was in a slow burn, probably didn't have a lot of O2 getting to it. When I popped that door the first time though, the flames got bigger and brighter very quickly! And, a HUGE cloud of black/grey smoke rolled out onto the ceiling and immediately spread through the house - all in a matter of seconds. As for my decision, it worked out, but it would probably have been best if I'd left it to the professionals - thankfully the station is only a mile away - they were here in about 2 minutes. I would personally recommend not trying to fight a fire unless it's small - kitchen, etc. Leave the big stuff to the pros, it's not worth your life.

Honestly, as a result of this discussion, I'm starting to think some solid core doors on the bedrooms may be a wise investment. When we remodeled about 10 years ago, we were required to put in chained smoke detectors - I have 6 installed, and thankful for it too - they did exactly what they were supposed to do.

 

[Foreverlost]

Not too long ago, a week or so, an article in a local rag had some info on this matter. With the newer construction materials and fabrics use in today's furniture; homes can be fully engulfed in flames in about three minutes.

My plan is to get out of the house, not going to be much time for anything else. Toss a chair thru the window and bail.......

Regards,
Foreverlost

 

[Camelfilter]

Great info here, thanks.

For folks who are heavy sleepers, work odd hours (shift/tour workers), or hard of hearing you might look at a bed shaker alarm as well.

My dad sent us a "safe awake" brand one. Tested it out & it works pretty decent! Startled the bejesus out of me when the wife tripped it when I was sound asleep, even though I knew she was going to. The bed shaking woke me before hearing the screeching linked smoke detectors did.

From that simple test we moved a few detectors around (smoke & CO), and added a few more. Also moved the security system base station so that it too will trip the bed shaker.

As for solid core interior doors, that's also a great idea for adding an extra layer of protection (time) against do-bads whom may have entered your home while occupied.