To wrap it all up.

“It’s funny how day by day, nothing changes. But when you look back, everything is different” – one of your proverbial Pinterest quotes that fittingly describes the last 1.5 years.

What has changed over the last 3 semesters? Certainly, my hair has grown longer. I have been through fluctuating stages of weight gain and loss, mostly weight gain. Dark circles under my eyes, as if to mark a personal Red Badge of Courage, have been growing prominently. I remain myself but I have learned a lot, a lot is an understatement! It’s oddly satisfying how much I have developed with proper education, the right support system, and a highly stimulating and challenging environment. I am proud of my progress in the journey to be a fire safety engineer.

So, to wrap it all up I decided to do a fun summary of the things I’ve learned over the past semesters by combining a personal hobby of mine, film critiquing, with fire safety concepts! In the spirit of being a fire safety engineer, I discuss some misconceptions that I have observed about fire and fire safety in films and TV shows.

• Cool, cool, cool, cool, cool.. or not?

Brooklyn 99 is certainly a fun cop-themed television show and I find the series highly repeatable. In one episode, we see the main character Jake Peralta traversing a series of activated carbon dioxide fire extinguishers (based on the nozzle heads in the scene).

Carbon Dioxide is effective to use on class A, B, and C fires, but be aware that EN ISO and NFPA have slightly different class descriptions. Though not as common as the foam extinguisher, CO₂ extinguishers are efficient for fires closer to the floor since CO₂ is heavier than air. It would effectively go down and penetrate hard-to-reach corners, areas not normally reached by water. However, great care must be taken in the application of CO₂ extinguishers. For one, freeze burns are a concern. According to our Active Fire Protection I class, never apply carbon dioxide to bare skin because it can cause injury, like when handling dry ice!

And while another character emerges as the winner, we can hear Jake screaming “it burns!” in the background but somehow remains unscathed in the next scene. In reality, Jake should be immediately treated for freeze burns with the proper medical procedure.

• Magic sprinklers

Picture this – the movie or TV protagonist finds himself or herself in a rut. How to get out of the situation? Pull or trigger the manual push button alarm and voila! everyone is drenched by the sprinklers; they make their escape.

In reality, manual push button alarms are their namesakes – alarms. They serve the purpose of warning occupants and the fire service through sound or announcement systems. Sprinklers are not automatically activated by the warning system – although they are designed in conjunction with alarm systems. A closer investigation reveals that indicated (high) temperature is needed to damage the sprinkler’s glass bulb to release water.

Another fallacy: when one sprinkler head goes off, the rest are activated. In true Hollywood spirit, this is dramatic. In true fire engineering spirit, this does not occur unless the set-up is for a deluge system. Sprinkler systems are designed so that the sprinkler heads directly near the seat of fire are damaged by high temperatures and thus discharge water.

• Through the fire

Orphan has been one of those Hollywood mind-bending movies that garnered a solid fan base, following Isabelle Fuhrman’s convincing portrayal of the titular character Esther. Esther, through her weapon of choice: Arson, is in a burning house in the final minutes of the movie. Based on the scene, the rooms have reached flashover. Flashover is described as the stage in the fire development curve wherein all possible combustible materials have started to ignite at almost the same instant. Flashover is a very fast and dangerous phenomenon, generating an incident heat flux of around 20kW/m² at floor level. For reference, we feel around ~1kW/m² heat flux from the sun on a normal sunny day. At flashover, it is a miracle that Esther walks casually past such highly untenable conditions.

Thick smoke is also often conveniently left out of fire scenes in movies because let’s face it, visibility will be very poor and that wouldn’t make for a good movie.

• Panic is not a joke, Dwight! Millions of families suffer every year! (The Office joke)

For The Office fans, the Fire Drill episode is arguably one of the funniest episodes in the entire show. We see Dwight Schrute simulating a “fire” in the office to test if The Office cast is prepared for a real fire incident. Mayhem ensues as we see the characters scrambling here and there to evacuate the premises after Dwight has blocked the possible exits. To many people, this scene is a typical emergency incident, panic is the prevailing conduct.

Panic is commonly described as some sort of irrational behavior from behavior literature such as ‘Panic’ and Human Behaviour in Fire by Rita Fahy. However, according to our Human Behavior in Fire course, studies show, and experts agree, that panic is extremely rare.

Fire safety engineers argue that the concept of panic is deemed a myth and the media often uses the term to sensationalize events. Because of such misconceptions, the responsibility is placed on the victims. According to Sime, the fire victims serve as “scapegoats” and the actual people responsible are not held accountable.  

There are cases, such as in the events of Sep. 11, 2001, where evacuees are reported to act in an altruistic manner. Contrary to panicking, people in fire incidents are helpful, courageous, and cooperative and behave in a rational behavior. Quoting Rita Fahy’s lecture slides,

“the following are the proper expectations that we should have of people in fire incidents. People are:

• Intelligent, can think for themselves

• Able to make decisions on information available and past experience

• Able to make decisions to preserve themselves and loved ones

• Helpful, courageous, cooperative

• They are not fire experts

• They lack experience”

By changing our perception of human behavior in fire, we are better equipped with knowledge to design safer and better for fire incidents.

Through introspection, I have seen my fire safety awareness grow in how I perceive fire safety not just in movies and TV but in everyday life. I certainly now coax my relatives to have their smoke detectors checked regularly. My partner as well is on the receiving end of my constant nagging to always close the fire doors in their dormitory, avoid propping the fire extinguisher on exit doors, and tell the other students to keep the exit paths free from obstruction.

IMFSE Cohort 2021 – Ghent. Thank you fam for the support!

The IMFSE experience has undoubtedly been a great journey and I wouldn’t trade it for any other educational experience in the world. Looking back, there were trying and difficult times. However, the knowledge and friendship gained are some of the things that I am truly grateful for.

I leave you with some pictures of the past semester in and around Ghent. The last semester has been very memorable, challenging most of the time, but very memorable. On to the thesis semester!

Special thanks to Joshua Teh and Deonisius Aprisa for fact-checking the values and facts in the article!