SELF-CARE IN CASE OF FIRES
Imagen propia y editada con Postimages
Greetings HIVE Community, this time the content of this post will be about what to do in case of a fire in a confined area.
In order to try to survive a fire in a confined area, we must know the products that a material generates when it burns and the characteristics of these products that make them dangerous for life.
- calor / altas temperaturas
- humo en forma de hollín y partículas incandescentes
- llamas / fuego
- gases tóxicos y combustibles
When a fire starts and develops, it produces mainly four elements
- heat / high temperatures
- smoke in the form of soot and incandescent particles.
- flames / fire
- toxic and combustible gases
Imagen obtenida de Pixabay y editada con Power Point y Postimages
Of these four elements, the main cause of death in a fire is not the fire but the gases and smoke generated by the combustion of the materials present at the fire site. This is due to the speed of displacement due to the high temperatures and the expansive property of the gases, since they will occupy all the space where they are contained. For this reason, they will reach all the places in the confined area before the flames do.
Basically, asphyxiating gases, organic irritants and toxic gases are generated. These include carbon monoxide, acrolein, nitrogen oxides, carbon dioxide, hydrocyanic acid, halogen acids and formaldehyde, among others.
The generation of these gases causes difficulty in seeing due to the darkening due to smoke, effects on the speed of movement and difficulty in escaping due to limited visibility, irritation of the upper and lower respiratory tract, narcosis due to inhalation of asphyxiating gases, thermal effects, burns in the respiratory tract and exposed skin due to the high temperatures at which they are found.

The gases derived from combustion, being superheated, tend to rise, occupying first the upper spaces of the building where a fire is developing. This characteristic is the main factor to take into account in order to escape from a fire area, since we will have the relative chance of being able to get less contaminated air in the lower areas of the building. That is, we will be able to breathe relatively well if we crouch or crawl towards the escape routes.
Considering all these factors, our strategy to escape from a confined space where a fire is developing is to advance at ground level. There we will be able to breathe with certain relief since the hot gases will occupy the upper spaces and will advance downwards as the fire increases.

We can improvise something to cover our mouth and nose as a filter and airway protector. It is important at this time to do everything possible to remain calm. Although in these moments the difficulty to breathe, the low visibility and the fear of being burned to death urge us, it is essential for survival to maintain control of our actions in order to escape from this situation. Despair leads us to panic and panic puts us in visceral mode, so all our actions will be governed emotionally and not rationally. Reducing our chances of escape.
Ya culminando este post les sugiero como principio de vida, que cada vez que lleguen a un lugar observen bien cuáles son las rutas de acceso y salida, esto nos ayudará mucho en casos de emergencia, que como todos sabemos no avisan y se presentan súbitamente.
As we finish this post, I suggest you, as a principle of life, that every time you arrive at a place, observe well the access and exit routes, this will help us a lot in case of emergency, which as we all know, do not warn us and appear suddenly.
En el próximo post ahondaré más en el tema de cómo mantener la calma. Siempre nos dicen ante las emergencias, cálmate, cálmate, pero no nos dicen cómo calmarnos. Este punto lo estaremos abordando en el próximo post.
In the next post I will delve more into the topic of how to stay calm. We are always told in emergencies, calm down, calm down, but we are not told how to calm down. This point will be addressed in the next post.
Gracias por haber llegado en la lectura hasta aquí.
Las imágenes fueron editadas con Power Point, Canvas y Postimages. El dibujo fue tomado del libro Fire Service Ventilation. De la International Fire Service Training Associated. Seventh edition.1994. Editada por mi usando los programas mencionados. Se empleó el Deepl como traductor.Thanks for reading this far.
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