NFPA Journal - March/April 2013 - (Page 22)

>>firewatch tended on the stove, the oil ignited, and the resulting fire spread to nearby combustibles, then throughout the apartment to the roof above. The two-story, wood-frame apartment building, which contained 16 units, was equipped with smoke detectors but had no sprinklers. The smoke alarms operated as designed, alerting the occupant, who called 911 at 5:54 p.m. Police and firefighters evacuated other building occupants when they arrived seven minutes later. As smoke and flames poured out a second-floor window, firefighters positioned a 2½-inch hose line to the left side of the building to protect exposures and brought additional hose lines into the structure. When they encountered heavy fire in the ventilation holes made in the roof, a second alarm was called. After part of the roof collapsed and all personnel were accounted for, the incident commander requested a third alarm. 22 NFPA JOURNAL MARCH/APRIL 2013 The building sustained an estimated $1,750,000 in damages, while damage to contents was estimated at $500,000. There were no injuries. Woman dies when smoking while on home oxygen OREGON—A 70-year-old woman died of smoke inhalation when home oxygen therapy tubing ignited while she smoked a cigarette. The fire occurred in a single-family, manufactured home, which covered about 900 square feet (84 square meters). The house had a battery-operated smoke alarm, but the fire was too small to activate it. The victim’s husband arrived home to find his wife lying face down on the living room floor, unresponsive, with blood around her mouth. He called 911 at 10:25 p.m., and firefighters arrived three minutes later to find him on the floor next to his wife. Investigators determined that the woman was smoking while wearing a nasal canula and that the canula and plastic tubing ignited, burning the area around her nose and mouth. She managed to pull the tubing off and put it in the kitchen sink, but she had already inhaled products of combustion. The toxic fumes, along with a history of decreased lung function, led to her death. No other evidence of burning was noted. The home and its contents, valued at approximately $36,000, sustained $600 in damage. Two-year-old dies in house fire NORTH CAROLINA—An 83-year-old great-grandmother saved two children from a fire in a single-family home but was burned when she tried to rescue a third child, who died in the blaze. The single-story, wood-frame house, which was 30 feet (9 meters) long and 40 feet (12 meters) wide, had smoke alarms, but investigators could not determine if they operated. There were no sprinklers. http://www.nohmi.co.jp/english http://www.nohmi.co.jp/english

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of NFPA Journal - March/April 2013

NFPA Journal - March/April 2013
Contents
First Word
In a Flash
Perspectives
Firewatch
Research
Heads Up
Structural Ops
In Compliance
Buzzwords
Outreach
Electrical Safety
Wildfire Watch
Cover Story: Storage Occupancies
Fifty Years of Smoke Detection
Industrial Occupancies
Chicago 2013
Fire Analysis + Research
Section Spotlight
What’s Hot
Looking Back

NFPA Journal - March/April 2013