Assessment of hazards to occupants from smoke, toxic gases, and heat

Abstract

The aims of this chapter are to provide methods for the assessment of life safety hazards in fires and an understanding of the effects of smoke, heat, and toxic fire effluents on occupants of buildings and other enclosures. Detailed discussions of the physiology and derivation of expressions suitable for a range of applications are presented in the main sections of the chapter. The assessment of toxic products from materials and the findings from studies of the toxicity of fire effluents in humans and animals from fire incident investigations, large and bench-scale fire tests and animal exposures is presented in Chap.