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  1. frigocc

    frigocc Contributor Contributor

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    Pro Tip: Accurately Representing Fires Is Actually MORE Dramatic Than Hollywood

    Discussion in 'Research' started by frigocc, Feb 25, 2019.

    You've seen movies and read books where there are big fires with big explosions. But many times, it's actually Hollywood that is less dramatic than real life.

    For example, backdraft is when the combustibles inside a room are above the autoignite temperature (exactly what it sounds like), but the room is oxygen-deprived, so it doesn't ignite. When oxygen is introduced by, say, opening the door to the room, everything instantly ignites, causing MASSIVE explosions, and usually killing the firefighters.

    In movies and shows, this explosion is usually about the size of the person or a bit bigger. In real life, it'll take out an entire single family home.

    Fire science is actually a fairly easy thing to learn about, and your local VFD would be GLAD to lend you their Firefighter 1 training books with info on it.
     
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  2. frigocc

    frigocc Contributor Contributor

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    Also, firefighters don't have beards, and you're gonna die if you don't wear your SCBA (mask).
     
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  3. Alan Aspie

    Alan Aspie Banned Contributor

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    How fast temperature can rise?

    Room has very much smoke. It is not from anything burning but from smouldering things. Nothing burns. Something smoulders. Room temperature is not high.

    Then that smoke catches fire. How fast room temperature now goes up?

    Answer: 100° Celsius in every ten seconds. So... One minute and about 700°C.
     
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  4. Iain Aschendale

    Iain Aschendale Lying, dog-faced pony Marine Supporter Contributor

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    I've shared this here before, but it shows how quickly a fire can spread. The weird robotic female voice is a text-to-speech that the vlogger had in place to deal with online comments.

     
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  5. EFMingo

    EFMingo A Modern Dinosaur Supporter Contributor

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    Hollywood actually does it right in Only the Brave (2018). One of the most accurate depictions of firefighters and how they use fire to fight fires. It's also an emotionally crushing movie.

    Hollywood usually has trouble depicting that what kills people usually isn't the flames themselves, but instead that it sucks the oxygen out of a room, causing the victim to asphyxiate. Usually in movies you only see one type of fire, which is the old gold standard of gasoline barrels and accelerant. In reality, fire has many forms and colors, dependent highly on the material being consumed. Of course, this is for the safety of the stuntmen and actors, but it still is a little off. A little understanding of flashpoints and specific heat capacities of materials presents a different outlook on the nature of fire.
     
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  6. Laughing Rabbit

    Laughing Rabbit Active Member

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    This subject is on my need-to-research list. I have a scene where there's a house fire, the scene is blocked out, character dialogue is there and mostly finished, but I realized that I didn't know how the fire should behave from the moment it started to the point where my characters realized there was a fire and attempt escape.
     
  7. Alan Aspie

    Alan Aspie Banned Contributor

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    Youtube and professional and voluntary fire fighters (maybe cops also) are your friends here.

    In the beginning roof might have 700°C with no oxygen and floor 20° - 140°C with almost normal levels of oxygen. So make your characters go on all fours.

    It helps you to understand how fire spreads if you remember that foam rubber and plastics are basically solid oil. And that the type of smoke that can catch a fire burns almost like natural gas and spreads fire really fast.



    You can see smoke catching fire between 1:50 and 2:09. In 1:50 - 1:57 it is almost invisible and happens only above fire. In 2:=0 it becomes more visible and spreads horizontally in roof. Pay attention to the diffference this 19 seconds make. (And temperature rices about 200°C in that time in the upper levels.)

     

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