Risks

Firefighters, not only in the Glasgow Fire Department, but around the world, risk their lives on a daily basis to protect their neighbors. The risks are high, with the ultimate sacrifice being the possible loss of life – both to a victim and a firefighter.

Below is a videos from YouTube showing just a few of the types of risks a firefighter may face when the call for help comes in.

From Wikipedia:
A flashover is the near simultaneous ignition of all combustible material in an enclosed area. When certain materials are heated they undergo thermal decomposition and release flammable gases. Flashover occurs when the majority of surfaces in a space are heated to the autoignition temperature of the flammable gases (see also Flash point).

An example of flashover is when a piece of furniture is ignited in a domestic room. The fire involving the initial piece of furniture can produce a layer of hot smoke which spreads across the ceiling in the room. The hot buoyant smoke layer grows in depth, as it is bounded by the walls of the room. The radiated heat from this layer heats the surfaces of the combustible materials in the room, causing them to give off flammable gases via pyrolysis. When the surface temperatures become high enough, these gases ignite.

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