WHAT MAKES A HOME A FIRE TRAP?

SEVEN CORRUPTIONS OF THE FIRE CODES

The American home is the most fire dangerous home in the world. The incredibly high burn rate and fire death rate, as related to the U.S. home, did not just happen. It came about as a result of two evolutions that occurred over the past 100 years.

One was the technological evolution. New technology brought into the home both an abundance of ignition sources, (many of them of an electrical nature), and a plethora of fast burning furnishings and other contents. In short, there came into the home too many things that could start a fire along with too many things that burned extremely well.

The second evolution that aided in converting the American home into a fire trap initiated with the creation of the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA). The fire insurance industry established the NFPA in 1895 as an organization that would develop fire codes to the benefit of the insurers, and other business enterprises that fed on the fire problem. Almost immediately, the NFPA began to produce codes that primarily benefitted those who were in the business of making money from fire, including the fire insurers.

Technology created new hazards that made the home more dangerous. Technology also had the potential to create the defensive measures that would have more than compensated for the added dangers. Indeed, there came into existence technology which could have reduced serious fires and fire deaths to near zero in the home. But, businesses behind the NFPA fed on fire. Therefore, what could have been done to virtually eliminate fire was prevented from happening by the fire code and building code systems. Instead, intentional code provisions were developed that not only prevented reduction in fire deaths, but greatly increased the fire deaths.

The chief methods by which the fire regulatory system, which I call "Club Fire", converted the home into a profit center for the fire business, are discussed below. Some of the strategies by which Club Fire increased the fire business by increasing home fires were passive. By that, I mean that the increases in hazardous conditions were evolving naturally due to more ignition sources and more fuel being entered. Club Fire simply failed to create and promote the changes needed to compensate. There was no real desire to solve the problem because fire fed the machinery of those who created the codes. That was the passive method, but it was intentionally passive.

The second strategy for increasing the burn rate in America was the aggressive suppressing of technology, created by others, who desired to reduce fire. Club Fire created market controls, which were mainly enforced by inspectors within the fire services, that prevented "non-Club Fire members" from selling non-certified fire prevention and fire suppression systems. If the product was good, and from the Club Fire's perspective, it would seriously impact the frequency of fires, which would reduce the profits from fire, that product was systematically disallowed. Barriers were created and enforced in order to block the sale of products and systems that would too seriously reduce fire. Those who persistently tried to market against the code barriers were driven into bankruptcy and destroyed.

Below I discuss the seven ways by which those organizations that profited from fire increased fire as the way to increase profits. Of course, much of this was accomplished behind that facade of humanitarianism called the National Fire Protection Association. A great array of seemingly "good solutions" which were mainly "non-solutions" were promoted, so that those things that would work well would be defeated. That which would have only the appearance of a solution would win.

Rationalizations abounded so that they who profited from fire could view themselves as defenders of home and life. Always, skewered logic was orchestrated to aid in the believing that what was good for those who profited from fire was also good for the American public. These men, (and they were predominately men) always found ways to love themselves, and love their works, as those awful fires forever kicked out the profits.

NUMBER 1: DESIGN FOR A SINGLE FIRE AREA

The home is constructed to be a single fire area. That is, no matter where the fire originates, the heat, smoke, toxic gases, and shortly thereafter the fire itself, will reach every room of the home. Design features that guarantee that a fire in any one area of the home would soon produce deadly conditions throughout the home, (often within three minutes), include the following:

The garage is to a slight degree, an exception, in that sheet metal is usually applied to the garage side of the door. However, a substantial garage fire will usually involve the attic and the living area of the home rather quickly, thus this requirement was more for show than for real.

NUMBER 2: NO SECONDARY EXIT WAYS

The rooms where nearly all fires initiate are the kitchen, living room, family room, dining room and if included, the den or playroom. These rooms often form one large open area; therefore a fire in any one part of this area will promptly produce dense smoke and hot gases throughout. The paths to both the front and rear doors usually are through this large living area that so quickly becomes so deadly. When fire starts at night, the occupants of the home usually are trapped in the bedrooms before becoming aware of the fire.

Going out a bedroom window is an emergency escape possibility if the home is a one story home and if the trapped person is healthy, young and agile. For small children, many women, the elderly, the ill and the handicapped, the window has little value as an escape route. Frequently, even a young and athletic man will be disoriented by the gases before becoming aware of the fire, and will fail to escape.

It is a common and natural reaction to attempt to escape fire by going out the familiar way, meaning the front or rear doors. Many times, a person that has a chance to escape via a window will try to leave through that area of the home that is already in an extremely dangerous condition. The victim will either fail to make it to the door and die, or will escape with very serious injuries.

NUMBER 3: AN ABUNDANCE OF VERY COMBUSTIBLE CONTENTS

One of the things that makes the American home particularly vulnerable to a deadly fire is the amount and the nature of the contents including the furnishings. In general the contents are easy to ignite, burn rapidly and very hot, and produce extremely toxic gases. Boiling water, at 212 degrees Fahrenheit, will cause third degree burns within one second of time. The fire gases usually are four to ten times hotter than boiling water.

The advent of the "plastic age" introduced material that will burn with an intensity approaching that of gasoline, while producing smoke and toxic gases that will blind the eyes, irritate the breathing passages and quickly disorient. Plastics can produce toxic combustion gases that can kill at rather low concentrations. The various gases are "synergistic", meaning that the combination is more deadly than any component alone.

Fire retardant treated materials, while code promoted as being "fire safe", when exposed to temperatures in the 500 to 1000 degree range, not only will burn ferociously, but will produce even more toxic gases than the untreated materials.

The American home is loaded with fuel not unlike the way a wood-burning stove is loaded with wood. What will surprise nearly everyone is that the home is not only built like a stove (the contents within the home will burn as wood burns within a stove) but, the home has been built to retain the heat of combustion more efficiently than the stove. The stove, being all metal, will radiate outward the energy created within. Thus, the heat energy will escape the stove, and the hot gases will rise up the stack. In contrast, the home is designed to contain the heat within itself, and the combustion gases do not vent to the outside. Let me explain why the home is so designed.

During the latter half of the 19th century and the early years of the 20th, many insurance companies were bankrupted by conflagrations. Instead of only one house burning independently, on a random basis, whole cities or whole sections of cities burned. There were a great many such conflagrations. Insurance rating systems are based on random events, the frequency of which is predictable. But, when a major section of a city burned at one time, to the insurer that was the equivalent of a person winning "too many millions of dollars" at the gambling table and "breaking the bank". Random fire losses were necessary to insurers. Conflagrations bankrupted the insurers.

In order to eliminate conflagrations (while not reducing random losses) the insurers promoted building codes that required every home to be separated, fire wise, from its neighbor. This could be accomplished by constructing fire walls between units (row houses, condominiums, apartments) or by requiring clear space (distance) between one family dwellings. To further insure that any one unit burned independently, without igniting its neighbor, the entire interior of the home was required to be sheathed with fire-proofed gypsum board. In theory, this interior sheathing will contain the super hot gases within the home where the fire starts, preventing fire spread into the attic and across to the neighbors roof, for 15 to 30 minutes. This will normally allow the firemen the time needed to initiate control operations before the neighbor's house becomes involved.

Note that by containing the heat and the gases, so as to prevent fire spread to the neighbors house, the code system is writing off those within the

home where the fire starts. The efficient containment of the heat within the home will speed up the fire's growth to the flashover stage, and increase the rate at which the fire will kill.

For decades Club Fire has been abundantly aware of the fact that the combustible contents when combined with the efficient heat retaining nature of the home will usually create conditions that will kill in less time than it takes for the fire trucks to arrive. But, by systematically assigning the blame for fire deaths to the faults of the victims, and by accentuating those rescues made when the firemen are lucky enough to get there before the occupants are killed, Club Fire has been able to convince the public that the remote firemen represent real safety for those within the home.

Almost without exception, down through the years, when Club Fire had the option of applying two different methods of dealing with fire, one being the virtual elimination of fire via the installation of fire sprinklers or an equivalency, and the second being to subdivide "too big" burn areas into "small burn areas" (then allowing for a random burning of these insurable size properties), the latter choice was made.

NUMBER 4: THE FAR TOO NUMEROUS IGNITION SOURCES

As the American home was becoming even more filled with things that would ignite readily and burn rapidly, it was also being equipped with the things that could create the heat needed to initiate the fire. Predominately, these are electrically powered.

The Federal Fire Administration compiled fire loss data from 1983 through 1990. The following categories accounted for 40.3% of all fire deaths in residential properties: Heating - 15.4%, Cooking - 9.3%, Electrical Distribution - 9.3%, Appliances - 3%, Other Heat - 2.3%, Other Equipment - 1.0%. Further, the following categories accounted for 50.6% of all fires. Heating - 10.7%, Cooking 27%, Electrical Distribution - 7.2%, Appliances - 5.7%, Other Heat - 1.8%, Other Equipment - 1.2%. The great bulk of these categories involve small appliances, major appliances, heating systems, air conditioning systems, stoves, lighting, appliance cords, lamp cords, house wiring, electrical tools, and similar electricity using devices.

All, or nearly all of these products which cause over 50% of the fires are tested and approved as being "fire safe" by Underwriters' Laboratories. Putting it another way, those things that form part of your home, and that you purchased and brought into your home, which you assumed to be "guaranteed to be safe", are the very things that initiate a majority of the fires. At first glance, even though stoves are U.L. tested and approved, the "Cooking" category may appear to be inappropriate here. Cooking initiated fires would seem to be mainly the fault of the cooks. But, I include this intentionally because, as will be brought out later, very close to 100% of the cooking fires would have been tamed to become minor and non-deadly fires, except that Underwriters' Laboratories played a major role in preventing the application of the appropriate safeguards.

There are two categories of fire starters in the home that are not due to unsafe conditions within the home. They are: Incendiary/Suspicious - 18.7% and Exposure (from outside the home) - 1/2%. If we toss out these two categories as being "not pertinent" to this analysis, then the fires that are initiated by U.L. certified devices and systems accounts for of all the fires that occur within the home.

Who is there in this world who can look at that thin electrical cord that runs under the child's bed, to the lamp or radio beside the bed, (which remains "hot" when the device is shut off), and predict . . . when it will decide to initiate a fire that will kill that child. Certainly not the fire inspectors. If a person could look at or feel a wire or a device and say . . . a fire will be initiated here soon, most fires would be stopped before they happen. Know this: That T.V. set that may kill you or your child tonight may seem to yo u to be in perfect working order during the 11 o'clock news.

Firemen, down through the decades of this century, have implied, over and over again, that most fires are caused by the carelessness of those within the home. Time and time again they preach that diligent and responsible citizens can prevent fires. This on-going and never ending propaganda conveys to the citizen the idea that the "others" (who suffer the fires) are "careless and irresponsible". Well, since the "other guy" died because he was careless, that implies that you, Mr. and Mrs. Careful, will be safe. The complacency of the citizen relative to the fire danger is born of these false beliefs that are continuously and energetically being generated within the fire regulatory system. This is the formula for death. We have allowed the fire regulatory system to, as the saying goes, get away with murder.

NUMBER 5: A DESIGN THAT WILL CONCEAL THE FIRE

A home is compartmented so that a person in one part of the home will not see the initiated fire in the other part of the home. This is one of the reasons why America, the most advanced nation on earth, produces more fire deaths than the more primitive societies. In our homes the fire will frequently remain undetected until it has reached a size large enough to become a "quick killing" fire.

It is not at all uncommon for a small boy playing with matches or a lighter, to ignite curtains, clothing or bedding within his bedroom, and then fearing punishment, hide in the closet or under the bed. The parent, when finally aware of the fire, may face a wall of black smoke and flames at the door to the child's room. That child will at least be trapped where he is, and may already be dead.

Now let me make this point very clearly. I do not say that major changes in the architecture of the home, are required. What I am saying is that the size of the home, and the layout of the home, and the contents of the home, create enormous problems. But, there are near perfect solutions to those problems, not all of which require architectural changes. Every existing home can be made fire safe. The problem is that the solutions to the problems created in the modern home have been intentionally obstructed by Club Fire.

NUMBER 6: THE ABSENCE OF A FIRE DETECTION SYSTEM

Let me begin this subject by recapping the previously discussed fire ingredients within a home that will make it a fire trap. There is an abundance of ignition sources and a heavy loading of fast-burning combustibles. When the fire initiates, often it is obstructed from view and not detected until it is too late. There are no real barriers to the fast spread of flames, smoke and toxic gases. Fire will often block the main exit ways very quickly.

An analysis of these fire problems by any reasonably intelligent person would, at the very least, lead that person to conclude that a FIRE DETECTION SYSTEM IS ESSENTIAL TO THE HOME. After all, if the occupant realizes there is a fire when that fire is very small, and easy to put out, or easy to escape, serious injuries and deaths would be very unlikely. No, it is not necessary to knock down all the interior walls so that fire can be promptly seen when it first initiates. It is only necessary to install a complete, proper and reliable, fire detection system, which if installed when built, will cost but a tiny fraction of the future fire insurance premiums and/or hospital or burial costs.

So, why isn't a home equipped with a fire detection system? The answer is not pretty. The fire code regulators, especially the National Fire Protection Association, "sold out" to corrupted businessmen who promoted a near worthless fire detector, the cheap ionization-type smoke detector.

Having this extremely unreliable smoke detector in the home is worse than having no detector at all. If there is no detector, the owner may come to realize that the occupants are not protected against fire. Therefore, he/she may seek proper protection. When the false solution was promoted as a real solution, the American home lost its chance to be protected.

NUMBER 7: MAKING SURE WATER IS NOT PUT ON THE FIRE UNTIL THE FIREMEN ARRIVE

It's strange. It's incredible. What Shakespeare knew quite well 400 years ago has been lost to the Modern American. He said it well. He said it straight. "A little fire is quickly trodden out, which, being suffered, rivers cannot quench."

The primary objective of the building and fire codes and the "fire safety" propaganda, as created and disseminated by the National Fire Protection Association, has been to prevent water, in its most efficient form, from being applied to the fire while the fire is still small. During that early time frame when the fire may be "quickly trodden out", nearly 100% of the time, water spray is not applied.

When water spray meets fire, fire dies. If applied prior to the damage being done, no damage would be done. With no damage done, the business of fire would wither and die.

The test results of Gerald Maatman, (who had been my classmate at our fire engineering school), and his associates, were published in the February 1970 issue of Fire Technology. Water spray was tested against the worst type of fire that could occur within a home, a flashover fire. A 12 X 12 X 8 foot room was loaded with combustibles, ignited and allowed to proceed to "room flashover". Every combustible within the room was burning. That room had become an incredible generator of heat energy and toxic gases.

A hose line and spray nozzle was then employed to extinguish a number of these "flashover" fires. In three of the test fires, the application rate was only 6.6 gallons per minute. With a 90 degree spray pattern, the flashed over room fire was extinguished in 22 seconds with a total usage of 2.4 gallons of water in a spray form. What this testing revealed is that virtually every home in America has far more water than needed to extinguish a fire, even when that fire totally involves a room. So, how difficult would it be to suppress or totally extinguish a fire, when that fire is small, using water spray?

The American public has never been advised as to how incredibly affective water spray can be on the early fire. The reasons are many, and all are related to money. With a small hose at the ready in every home, and with a reliable fire detection system, it would be a rare occasion when the firemen would have a fire to fight when they arrived. Fire insurance rates and the insurers "profits" would plummet. Billions of dollars in sales of low value fire protection systems and devices would be lost. The Business of Fire would become an endangered business. So, the fire regulators years ago, set in motion schemes, codes and propaganda so as to prevent the use of water spray on the early fire. For the firemen to use water was O.K. because, by then, statistically, major fire damage and deaths would already be assured.

Here are a few of the many steps taken so as to prevent the use of water spray on the early fire, when it would be, as Shakespeare said, "quickly trodden out".

impossible to design a "code approved" sprinkler system for the home. Of course, non-code systems were not permitted to be marketed.

non-sprinklered homes, demands for a residential sprinkler code finally forced the NFPA to act, the NFPA created a "phoney" residential sprinkler code. The code required twice as much water as would be available in an existing home. The NFPA and its allies made sure that 99% or more of our homes would not be sprinklered.

straight stream nozzle could be used safely.

straight stream that lasted less than 60 seconds. Few knew how to use them effectively. In the hands of an amateur fire fighter, they were close to useless at putting out a fire. Sometimes, due to sudden high pressure, they could explode and destroy hands and face. Most people learned to not use them. (This is a prime example of the way Club Fire substituted near useless fire protection for correct and powerful fire safety tools, and in the process, guaranteed that little fires would surely become big fires.)

all the way off the rack. If the hose was not pulled off completely before the hose was turned on, the hose would not perform. When high pressure hit the nozzle end, which often had no on/off valve, the sudden nozzle reaction could rip the hose out of the users hands, even knock him down. Then the flailing nozzle could kill that man. Decades ago, in general, men grew wary of ever using those hose stations that generated so much money, but affected the fire losses very little, if any. The horrendous MGM Hotel and Casino fire of 1980, where 85 died is an example of a little fire becoming big because of that non-useful hose.

not control a flammable liquids fire in the home. In 99% of the situations, that was a lie.

All of the above strategies, and more, were employed to discourage the application of water spray to an early fire before the firemen arrived. This desire for the non-usage of water, however, never deterred the selling of high priced equipment that used water, so long as the device itself was ineffective and/or dangerous.

ONE MEASURE OF THE "COVERUP" FACTOR

As an illustration of how well Club Fire can conceal from the public life or death-type information, that the public has a right to know, I give you the fire testing procedures at Underwriters' Laboratories. The U.L. live fire testing that results in a "certification" (U.L. calls it a "listing") for the smoke detector will allow the level of smoke to go far into the "untenable" (I call it "deadly"), range, yet the detector still passes the test. Yes, the device that fails to detect smoke prior to the killing stage in the lab is sold into the American home with laboratory certifications.

Our federal and state agencies that are charged with protecting the people against fire have been helping the smoke detector makers keep this an "in house secret" for more than 20 years. Seemingly, money outweighs the children.

Because the smoke detector false alarms so readily to the invisible (sub-micron sized particulates) often produced by cooking and aerosols, the consumer is lead to believe that the device will detect real fires producing visible (large particulate) smoke. Such false beliefs are actually encouraged by Club Fire as part of the coverup strategy. This further convinces the normal and responsible citizens that those who become fire victims are the "irresponsible few" who do not maintain their detector and are careless in other ways. Then, deceived into complacency, "Mr. Good Citizen" and his family end up dead.

THE OVERVIEW

I will now go back and summarize the logic and the ways by which the American home became a fire trap. It was partly caused by the evolution of technology and the growth of affluence. The contents grew in combustibility. The combustion gases produced became more varied and more toxic. The number of things that could initiate fire increased. The home became extremely fire dangerous.
During this time of increasing danger, when logic would have dictated that new and better safeguards be applied, the fire code system prevented those changes from occurring. Those who made money from fire not only did not encourage the needed advancements, indeed, they prevented them from evolving.

Here's some examples: cooking initiates more fires than any other activity in the home. To install a sprinkler head above the stove, and an alarm would cost maybe 10% of the cost of a fancy refrigerator. The cost would be negligible to the cost of a new home. This simple installation of a half inch copper pipe to a ten dollar sprinkler head would reduce home fire deaths by near 10%. The sprinkler could turn itself off, and the electricity to the stove as well. A 286 degree or greater temperature rating would allow a flare up to be controlled manually before the sprinkler opened, thus the head would not be subjected to premature operation. Such an innovation did not remain non-applied because of its cost, or because the sprinkler was not available, or because it required a genius to think of it. It did not happen because there was (and still is) a strong desire in the field that it not be allowed.

The selling of near worthless smoke detectors into 80 million homes was not an easy thing to bring about. It required a n enormous amount of falsified and fraudulent testing. It required the "prostituting" of research engineers. It required the "burying" of legitimate research which had proven that the device would not detect most fires. It also required the gaining of the cooperation of virtually the entire fire protection community by one of these methods.

not asking too many questions".

If I were to name the most important methods by which the business of fire, which I refer to as "Club Fire", guaranteed that the American home would remain dangerous, and nearly 100% non-protected, these two methods would top the list:

reliable fire detection systems in homes.

application of water spray on the early fire. This includes barriers to the automatic fire sprinkler system and to the use of hose and spray nozzles designed to utilize the water already available within the home.

It was not by chance that the American home became an enormously dangerous fire trap. It required great effort on the part of a great many people within Club Fire to bring it about. It is not easy to create and certify "a