Discussion

A fire begins in the corner of a chair as the result of a cigarette that fell into the crack between the seat, cushioning and the back of the chair. The initial smoldering transitions to flaming, slow at first but growing. At about one minute, the flame is as high as the back of the chair, and wispy black smoke is rising toward the ceiling. Within a minute and a half, black smoke begins to spread across the entire ceiling in a thick layer. The bottom of the layer is about four feet from the floor. Within two minutes in the upper layer, flames can barely be seen, but they are spreading across the ceiling with little bursts of light from the flames. The air in the lower part of the room (away from the fire itself) is still relatively cool and clear. However, just after four minutes, the upper layer is now so hot that the radiant energy is intense enough to ignite other furniture in the room.

Discuss the fire behavior phenomenon discussed in this scenario. Why is it important to understand the fire development?