Rhode Island Fire

Here is a first hand video of a fire that occurred in a club in Rhode Island in 2003. A good account of how humans may act in a fire and reminder or even first time lesson to learn how incredibly fast a fire can grow and become uncontrollable and deadly. 100 lives were lost.




(Here is a link to the video as well...http://youtu.be/2DObOdAceGo

Fire Experiments, Fire, & More Fire

Recently, we performed a small experiment in one of the Universities fire testing laboratories. We used a pan of liquid methanol, started a fire, and measured the heat release rate (a measure of the rate at which energy (in the form of heat) is released) with a device called a oxygen consumption calorimeter. We ran a few tests to check out how repeatable the experiment was. Then, we simulated our experiment after wards with some computer software and compared the computer simulations to the data we got from the experiment. Knowledge regarding the heat release rate of a fire is one of the most important concepts and factors in fire safety design and evaluation.

Setting up the experiment:


The hat is pretty useless here but makes a good photo! Netsanet, Dennis, & I.

Marta, Netsanet, & I set up the thermocouples and data aquisition equipment for the experiment:


A simulation of the velocity of the gases entering and leaving the test cell:



A representation of gas temperature:


Unfortunately, this test was not nearly as scintillating as some of the stuff I used to do and see at UL(though more educative in different ways):








In conclusion, Hooray for Fire! (I mean, fire safety!). Guess that's enough nerd speak for one blog. Cheers.

Brand

Brand is Swedish for Fire, in case you were wondering (of course, you were wondering).

Some of the Swedish fire safety students took it upon themselves to have a super-Swedish dinner for us international fire students in the engineering building the other day with Swedish foods. It was quite fantastic:





Toffee filled chocolate candies. The words mean things like hug, kiss, etc:


Hearty foods such as:
Boiled potatoes
Mashed Potatoes
Meatballs
Picked fish (like picked herring)
Pink Russian cabbage salad for the fish
Sour Cream with Chives
Lingonberry jam (for the meatballs)
Swedish made gravy
Falukorv sausage
Lotsssss of Desserts
Blodpudding (like blood sausage)





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Body Temperatures

Took a tour of a laboratory on campus today that does some research into various types of clothing and gear for fire fighters, to study, for example, how various materials insulate a fire fighter and their influence on the rate at which body temperatures change, or, how a fire fighter wearing a vest filled with ice absorbs heat and thus helps more effectively cool the body and control breathing and metabolic rates for a longer duration (a good thing when you are in a hot building with 50 lbs of gear on). Well, here's what I looked like on the temperature sensing display. Hot, I know. Zing. Cheesy.