Aug 16, 2010: Russia Burns

[spudcon]

Russia Burns. Oh, sorry, wrong Burns.

[spudcon]

Originally Posted by Bullitt

Fire sucks in fresh air from near the ground, then the heat blasts unburnt fuels and byproduct gases way up into the sky forming those giant plumes of smoke. The CO2 never gets a chance to displace the oxygen feeding the fire because it is carried up so quickly, and is actually released from the fuel source above where combustion is actually occurring.

I got thinking about CO2 being heavier than air, but I guess you explained that too.

[lookout123]

Originally Posted by SPUCK

Reminds me of the Great Fire of 1910.


.

That must make you the oldest internet user alive then.

[Bullitt]

Originally Posted by spudcon

I got thinking about CO2 being heavier than air, but I guess you explained that too.

CO2 (and CO, which is why your household CO detector should be near the floor) is more dense than air, but that density is no match for the buoyant force of the heat from the fire. However that only applies in wildfires. Unventilated structure fires are a whole different ball game.

[SPUCK]

Originally Posted by lookout123

That must make you the oldest internet user alive then.

No - newspaper reader.

[Griff]

Originally Posted by Bullitt

CO2 (and CO, which is why your household CO detector should be near the floor) is more dense than air, but that density is no match for the buoyant force of the heat from the fire. However that only applies in wildfires. Unventilated structure fires are a whole different ball game.

Please leave Colorado out of this, they're doing their best.

[xoxoxoBruce]

The rising superheated air will even form a mini-tornado.

[Adak]

Originally Posted by squirell nutkin

I read that during the firebombing of Dresden bricks melted from the heat. That is a hot fire. What Bullitt said about air being sucked into the fire, winds of over 70mph were created by the vacuum created by the firestorms in Dresden.

I better check wikipedia on that.

During both the London fire storm (around St. Paul's Cathedral) and various German city fire storms, especially Dresden, survivors recalled seeing unwary pedestrians being pulled into buildings massively burning, by the force of the wind the firestorm had created.

The film and eyewitness accounts of these (from the documentary "World At War"), is compelling.

There is no film of it, but the Japanese faced this, much worse*, in the course of the fire bombing in Tokyo. Dresden X 10, perhaps. Massive fatalities. The gov't of Japan did not decide to surrender, however.

*we had more bombers, more incendiary bombs, and almost complete air superiority. The Japanese barbarity** had enraged the USA, like you wouldn't believe, by that time. Pity for the Japanese civilians at that time, was at an all-time low.

** the sport for Japanese officers during the Bataan March, was to see if they could decapitate with one stroke of their uniform sword, a POW, as they marched next to the officer's vehicle.