Precautions to prevent fatal fires

ONE hears of people dying in fires, and my Elementary Fire Engineering Handbook by the Institute of Fire Engineers has this to say about things to look out for:

• When substances such as foamed rubber smoulder they can cause flammable smoke to form. If air is introduced this flammable smoke can explode.
• When beams are heated and they expand they can exert sideways force and cause a wall to collapse.
• Heating the inside of a tall wall on the inside causes the inside to expand causing it to curve outwards and again it will possibly collapse.
• Light timber in roofs is often held together with metal connectors and these can expand on heating and fall out, so that the roof that looks stable (timber not burnt) might not be.