Report
A successful application by homeowner to have the cause of fire investigated and determined has led to this inquiry to unravel the cause of the fire with a future anticipation how homeowners can avoid fire accidents. This report will also identify some of the potential common causes of fire accidents at home to enable the owner inform relevant people who can help seal loopholes that are likely to contribute to devastating effects of fire accidents.
Description of the Incident
The main door leading to the kitchen reveals how the fire stated. In the cooking area, there are two relatively heavy wooded cupboard position against one another. The doors and windows were all left open suggesting strong winds might have contributed towards shifting the center of gravity (CoG) of the cupboard next to the main door. A raised (CoG) of the long cupboard made it to lose the stability leading to a push of the small cupboards to the left. Adjacent to the supporting stand of the small cupboard lies a bottle of Diggers bio flame. As the long cupboard exerts pressure on the small one, the small one will eventually loses its stability and begin to curve inwards. An increase in weight to the extent that the small cupboard cannot bear the weight of the long cupboard leads to eminent fall which finally lands on Diggers bio flame bottle which seems almost full. The pressure exerted on the bottle leads to forceful ejection of the bottle content and a high pressure and being a highly flammable substance the pressure exerted on the bottle causes the molecules to explode into flames.
There is a trail on the floor painting a picture how the flammable content exploded and the fire taking the defined route followed by the flammable liquid content. Evidently, the fire caused a lot of damage on the items that were on the floor such as books, clothes among other plastic substances.
There are several causes of home fire accidents. These may include electric fault either emanating from heavy electric home appliances, gas cookers, explosion of highly flammable substances among others. From the look of things in this home fire accident, there was a likelihood that the fire was caused by an explosion of a flammable liquid (Diggers) which was adjacent to the falling cupboard in the kitchen area (See image 1). A close look at Appendix 1 reveals that the cupboard lost stability causing it to tilt to the right hand side on the small cupboard which later on the process of falling, pressed the flammable liquid bottle exerting unusual pressure. The weight of the two cupboard exerted maximum pressure on the bottle which lead to an explosion. The flammable molecules followed a definite path that shows how the bottle content was forcefully ejected out.
This lead to the burning of the seemingly wooded floor along the path taken by the liquid. It is also noticeable how the fire spread to other adjacent rooms causing some serious damages on things that were on the floor. However, the distance of the flowing liquid to the next room is about three meters away. This explains the possibility of a third force that lead to the spread of the fire to other rooms in the house. A close examination of the house ventilation system reveals that the doors and windows were not locked, leading to a wide opening which permitted strong winds to find its way to into the house. This situation allowed air current to sweep across the rooms.
It is most likely that the wind current aided in the spread of fire to the adjacent room which had books along other household equipment. An increased flow of air current into the house and meeting the slowly burning wooden floor catches other books and clothes. The fire did not completely burn books, cloths and some household items that were lying on the floor. Presence of carbon material in these items seems to have hindered the fire from consuming the items wholly. Also, the walls leading to other rooms seem to have also prevented the spread of the fire by blocking air currents to a great extent leading to incomplete combustion of items that were on fire. This explains why some of the books and clothes that were on the fire pathway got semi-burnt.
The opening such as the doors and windows catalyzes the burning of equipment as it brings more oxygen which accelerated the fire. A look at the electricity main switch reveals that everything is okay. There is no single noticeable fault from the wiring system. It is important to note that all the burnings happened at the ground level and increased with an increase in the amount of air allowed in the room. The burns were more serious on the bedroom door which seemed to have open windows and had so many combustible materials which seemed to have changed the direction of the fire upwards.
On the other room, smoke filled the ceiling board, blackening it to a great extent that it losses its default color. Although there are some electrical wires on the ground, the darkening of the ceiling board was purely caused by carbon present the burning substances on the floor and some materials which were slightly raised off the floor.
Ignition
The flammable liquid is likely to have caught fire when the two heavy cupboards pressed its wall. Exerting pressure that forcefully busts out into flames due to the friction of the flammable liquid molecules. The level of ignition was too weak thus causing a slow burning fire only on the floor area. The corridors looked clean despite the burnings on the floor. This may translate to a complete combustion aided by free flow of oxygen leaving slightly sooty walls.
However, there were several instances of incomplete combustions which lead to the thick black soot on other burning items surface. Closed areas almost risked incomplete combustion as there were high level of soot produced by the carbon present in most of the materials on the floor. Also, the flammable liquid was weak and in small quantity unlikely to cause massive explosion that might have spread to the roof and other raised storage areas. The destruction caused could not have spread to other rooms if big air openings such as windows and doors were closed. The little sparks only led to the incomplete burning of the materials on the floor and stopped as soon as there was no catalyzing agent such as plenty of oxygen. The surface where the whole flammable liquid spilt as a result of pressure assumed a zig-zag burning trail depicting the nature of pressure emanating from the bottle when the cupboard fell on it.
The fire also burned some documents which might have been very important. If the fire could have been caused by electric failure or short-circuit, the results could have been worse. There could have been uniform spread of the fire on the house as electric fire accidents usually follow a defined path most preferably the wiring system with components plugged in. Also the fossil fuel fire would have raced down the whole building owing to its powerful energy source
Carbon fuels for example have a high affinity for carbon. It will require an open area or area rich with oxygen for it to burn completely. Absence of enough oxygen will lead to incomplete combustion processes as the ones seen in the Appendix 1, 2, from appendix 1 and 2, both are represent the initial stages of the fire. The first cupboard losses the balance while the second photo appear to be falling apart. The charred floor surface reflects the aftermath of seemingly little content of explosive substance. The fire could have caused more damages if the flammable liquid content was in large volumes.
Although the spilt liquid is considered a source of fuel to have caused the fire accident. The extent of damage was considerable low looking at some of the combustible items which could have led to the whole house burning. Too high content of carbon both in the clothes and papers saved the day for it is very unlikely for carbon fuel to thrive in carbon dominated atmosphere
Heat Vector Analysis
Appendix 1
Appendix 2
Image 1
References
NFPA 921 (2011). Guide for fire and explosion investigation. United States:
