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About 80 % of all fire fatalities in Germany occur in fires in homes1. UK statistics show that living and bed room fires are more often responsible for fatalities than kitchen fires although kitchen fires occur much more often2. It has been known for some time that modern materials tend to burn differently from older materials and it has been acknowledged that the amount of combustible plastics in homes has increased significantly over the last decades3-7. To investigate the influence of modern furniture and ventilation conditions of fires in homes a series of four large scale tests in two living rooms with adjacent rooms was performed by BAM and the Frankfurt fire service8. Two living rooms, one with older furniture and one with modern furniture were tested twice each. Each test started with the ignition of a paper cushion on an upholstered chair. The influence of modern materials on the fire development was investigated as well as the influence of the ventilation on the fire development. Two tests with closed windows and two tests with open windows were performed. Temperatures were measured in the living rooms and the adjacent rooms, gas compositions were measured in the adjacent rooms and videos were taken in all rooms. The ventilation as well as the different materials influenced the fire development regarding temperatures in the rooms and smoke production and composition significantly. The fire in the living room with modern furniture developed faster than the same setting with older furniture. More ventilation (open window) led to higher temperatures in the rooms and faster fire development as well. Smoke gas composition was measured in the adjacent rooms to assess the positive effect for a person being in the adjacent room and not in the room of fire origin. In all settings an upholstered chair was the first burning item. The modern upholstered chair was investigated in three pre-experiments under different conditions to enhance the understanding of the living room fires. The measured mass losses and derived mass loss rates have been used for numerical modelling of the pre-experiments.
Fires in homes are responsible for about 80 % of all fire fatalities in Germany. It has been known for some time that modern materials tend to burn differently from older materials and it has been acknowledged that the amount of combustible plastics in homes has increased significantly over the last decades. Complementary to the large scale tests performed before, a test series of four experiments in living rooms with adjacent rooms has been performed with the Frankfurt fire service and BAM, the German Federal Institute for Material Research and Testing. The influence of older and modern furniture and ventilation conditions on the fire and smoke development of fires in homes have been investigated as well as the differences in conditions for inhabitants who are in the room of fire origin or in the adjacent room were assessed, figure 1.In addition, buildings have changed significantly in recent years. The need for energy conservation has led to new applications as solar panels, batteries for storage of electrical power and a variation of insulation materials. The possible combustibility of all these applications only slowly comes into consideration. It has been known for some time that modern materials tend to burn differently from older materials and it has been acknowledged that the amount of combustible plastics in homes has increased significantly over the last decades. A test series of four experiments in living rooms with adjacent rooms has been performed with the Frankfurt fire service and BAM, the German Federal Institute for Material Research and Testing, to investigate on hand the influence of older and modern furniture and ventilation conditions on the fire and smoke development of fires in homes and on the other hand the to assess the differences in conditions for inhabitants who are in the room of fire origin or in the adjacent room.
At the same time we face an ageing population that will be less mobile and might need more assistance than ever before. This influences directly the ability to escape and the time needed.
Although for the last decades we saw a decrease in the number of deaths from fires we should not assume that this trend must continue. On one hand, we might have benefited from safer electrical appliances, measures as smoke detectors and non-combustible stair cases and advanced medical treatment. On the other hand, nowadays we face the situation that buildings change significantly in shape, air tightness and used building materials. At the same time building contents change significantly as in increasing amount of consumer products stored at home and change of the materials of the consumer products and furniture. In addition, we face changes in our demography with an ageing population and an increasing inclusion of persons with disadvantages which influences the ability to escape directly. This set of changes is not reflected by a change in the building codes yet.