Fire is an indescribable disaster in and of itself - buildings suffer, property values (property, money, equipment) accumulated by families over decades are destroyed. Uncontrolled fire harms the health and life of every living creature. But at the same time, there are dangerous fire factors that are not so obvious to a person who rarely encounters or does not encounter such catastrophic trouble at all.
Of course, the first of these factors is fire and its attendant temperature. It is they that cause the main damage to real estate, human health and its property. But they are followed by other dangerous factors of the fire, and ahead of all - a lack of oxygen. Even students from a course in chemistry and physics know that combustion is possible only in the presence of this gas. And with an open fire, especially if its area is large, oxygen is consumed at an incredible speed. Because of what begins its lack, causing oxygen starvation. At the initial stage, it entails an accelerated heartbeat, decreased brain activity and impaired coordination. With a very low oxygen level, death occurs almost instantly.
Chemical factors
Hazardous fire factors also include smoke, carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide. CO 2 (carbon dioxide) does not smell and has no color, but if it is more than 10% in the air, people lose consciousness and cannot get out of a house in flames. Carbon monoxide is even more insidious and dangerous - even an insignificant concentration of it within half an hour kills a person no worse than chemical warfare agents. Smoke is included in the sad list called “dangerous fire factors” due to the fact that it greatly complicates orientation in a smoky room. A person spends more time to get out on the street, and therefore the probability of getting burns or poisoning with the listed combustion products is significantly increased.
Physical factors
Dangerous factors of a fire are also destruction (collapse of buildings or some industrial structures). And here the risk is not only breaking, say, concrete walls, but also their fragments, which can fly apart over a very considerable distance.
Secondary Fire Hazards
In addition to the fragments already mentioned, it is worth recalling liquids that can be sprayed from high temperature. Moreover, their temperature may be higher than the boiling point of water. Then spreading and scattering of toxic, and even radioactive, materials from damaged equipment is possible. Torn wires are no less dangerous, especially with high voltage (many people die from electric shock during a fire). And, of course, panic and hopelessness can be attributed to this, because those trapped in the fire trap are thrown from the upper floors of the skyscrapers quite often a minute before the rescuers appear.
Hazard prediction
When extinguishing fires, forecasting dangerous fire factors can be very useful. So, if any chemical plant is burning, it is logical to assume that the air will contain a huge amount of toxic chemical compounds. Knowing what the plant produces, you can stock up on drugs that reduce toxic effects in advance. If a parking lot or gas station caught fire, it’s clear that you must first put out something that could explode.