Escolar Documentos
Profissional Documentos
Cultura Documentos
Why
Ame rica
is Bu r n i n g
by: R. M. Patton
Fire Protection Engineer
T a bl e o f C o n t e n t s :
PART 1: AMERICA IS BURNING 3
PART 17: DO NOT PUT THAT FIRE OUT - THE FIRE PROFESSION 20
PART 24: DO NOT PUT THAT FIRE OUT - THE ECONOMY OF FIRE 28
FIRES NEMESIS:
The easy way to eliminate fire is with water spray. Fire can survive only within an environment
where the surrounding temperature is nearing a thousand degrees F. Reduce the temperature of the
fire’s environment and fire dies.
THE REQUIRED WATER:
When fire is first born one gallon of water, especially if delivered in a spray form, is sufficient
to kill. Water kills by cooling and it has an absolutely incredible ability to absorb heat when applied in
droplets. The surface area of the water is maximized when broken into fine spray and the greater the
surface in contact with the fire the greater the heat absorption. But five to ten minutes later, when the
firefighters presumably arrive, often a hundred thousand gallons is inadequate. If that one gallon of
water is delivered to the early fire there will be no need for the hundred thousand gallons ten minutes
later and there’s the rub.
TWO WAYS TO GUARANTEE EARLY FIRE CONTROL:
There are two solutions to the building fire problem, which is the great portion of the total fire
problem. One is to install reliable and honest fire detectors in homes. When an alarm sounds while the
fire is still small, and if an effective means to control the early fire is available, the still tiny and
harmless fire can be promptly and safely terminated. Thus, an honest and reliable fire detection
system could prevent fire deaths and serious damage to a home at least 90 percent of the time.
Better yet, there is statistical fire loss data to confirm that an automatic fire sprinkler system can
control the early fire and prevent fire deaths with 99.9 percent reliability.
THE FIRE CONTROL CAPABILITY OF FIRE SPRINKLERS:
I provide a quote from an article by Mr. T. Seddon Duke, within The Rostrum publication dated
September, 1959 “Sprinkler supervised by ADT Central Station Supervisory and Water Flow Alarm
Service have had (since 1925) a satisfactory performance record of 99.98 percent!” Mr. Duke was the
president of a fire sprinkler company. Therefore, as of 1959 (if not much earlier), loss data revealed that
an electrically monitored fire sprinkler system was approximately 99.9 percent reliable at controlling
the early fire. Other data indicated that fire deaths in sprinklered buildings were very close to zero.
warn of the extremely dangerous fast growing flaming fires. Because the further the
detectors are from the early fire the greater the delay in the warning, best protection is to
have a detector in every room.
2. When the fire is of the smoldering type, if you have the correct type smoke detectors
(photoelectric) there should be adequate time to exit because deadly conditions develop
slowly. But when flames are present do not delay leaving for any reason. Flaming fires
will suddenly increase in intensity unexpectedly (it’s called room flashover). If flashover
occurs while you are still within the home it may be impossible to reach the exit door.
3. Equip your home with the correct type fire detectors and be outside on the front lawn
when the first fire engine arrives, otherwise you may be coming out horizontally.
way to the so-called smoke detector, the minute combustion particles agglomerate (bind together) and
become larger and less numerous. This is similar to the way rain drops are created as moist ocean air
rises up a mountain range. So, when the combustion products from the early and small flaming fire
finally reach the so-called smoke detector the particulate is often too large to activate the alarm. When the
flaming fire becomes large enough to send a hot particulate promptly and directly to the installed device,
probably (but not with certainty) it will sound. However, by then the fire may already be at the killing
size. Both the flaming and smoldering fires will often reach a deadly stage prior to a warning sounding.
THE FLAWED TESTING AT UNDERWRITERS’ LABORATORIES:
Underwriters’ Laboratories (UL) conducts four flaming fire tests at its lab within a large room
where the detectors are installed approximately 17 feet from the fire. The highest smoke density
allowed for passing the tests is 37 percent light reduction per foot. This represents an extremely
dangerous, indeed fraudulent testing of the device. During the many years when the smoke detector
manufacturers were claiming their devices would warn when the smoke density was 4 percent
(sometimes 2 percent) UL never required the manufacturers to reveal the actual smoke density when
their devices operated. So, for many years (indeed it is still occurring) the manufacturers deliberately
lied about the ability of their devices to detect fires and UL failed to warn the public that the
performance claims were being disproved within the UL test facility. Thus, the manufacturers and
Underwriters’ Laboratories were in a criminal conspiracy to defraud the public. And this fraud was
killing thousands of children. Hence, the term “Children Killers” is very appropriate.
TESTING THE DETECTOR IN A “SMOKE BOX”:
Originally, smoke detectors were tested (relative the smoldering fire) only in a “smoke box”. The
detector, a burning wick and a blower were all enclosed within the compact box. The blower blew fresh
air across a burning wick and then directly into the smoke detector. The delivery of fresh air enhanced
the smoldering and produced a particulate type capable of operating the device. Then the combustion
products immediately entered the detector before the minute particles could agglomerate. This test was
perhaps an adequate test for a fire in a foot locker with the smoke detector also located within the foot
locker. But, it was in no way pertinent to the true behavior of the device in the real world. Thus UL
“certified” the device as being a reliable detector of both the flaming and the smoldering fire
whereas it was close to useless for both. In Australia the performance of this phony smoke detector
was tested without requiring it to detect smoke. Oh well, why should a smoke detector be required to
detect smoke? That would be picky, wouldn’t it?
THE CREATION OF A FRAUDULENT SMOKE DETECTOR TEST:
During the Dunes Tests, as previously stated, the average time for an ionization device to
respond to a smoldering fire (when it did respond) exceeded one hour. Then, it operated only because
the smoldering fire was near or at its ignition point for flaming. The Dunes Researchers avoided a
major scandal for the NFPA and UL by mixing up and hiding the computer generated data in the rear of
the report and by lying about the results up in the conclusions at the front of the report. They did this
knowing that very few people would read beyond the conclusions. But that still left UL without a valid
test for a smoldering fire and many fire chiefs were questioning the legitimacy of the product. So, UL
created a new (but phony) test to further deceive the fire chiefs. The new test involved placing
Ponderosa Pine sticks on a hot plate and heating the hot plate up to or near 700 degrees F. When the
Ponderosa Pine was near its auto-ignition temperature (for flaming) it produced a type of high energy
“smoke” (that contained the billions of the near atomic sized particles that were required to operate the
device). But, this is not the type of smoke that a real smoldering (low temperature but smoky) fire
creates. It short, the new test was one more deception.
1. Manufacturing and selling a dangerous and frequently deadly device improperly named a
“smoke detector”. It is estimated that a defective and frequently deadly so-called smoke
detector was sold into at least 80 million U.S. homes and many tens of millions more overseas;
2. Advertising false performance claims for the device (an ionization type so-called smoke
detector) within the NFPA publication, the Fire Journal, between the years of 1965 through
1980, and in other publications that went to fire department officials;
3. Testing the device with inadequate and false performance tests in the laboratory and concealing
the conditions under which it would fail to perform;
4. Conducting a federally funded test where the tests were rigged to provide false conclusions.
Disseminating deliberate performance lies within a federal fire research report
i.e. The 1974~1976 Indiana Dunes Tests Report conducted by The National Institute of Standards &
Technology (NIST) - formerly the National Bureau of Standards (NBS);
5. Recommending, promoting, distributing (often for free) and installing devices known to be
defective and deadly into buildings. Deceiving occupants of its ability to perform;
6. Testing the installed devices with a “smoke detector tester” that provides a fallacious positive
test for a dangerously defective device. Assuring the occupants that the device will warn under
conditions where it will fail to warn;
7. When fire deaths occurred due to the inability of the device to detect real (visible) smoke,
providing official but false reports relative the true reasons for the deaths;
8. Continuing to cover-up the crimes for more than four decades during which an enormous
number of wrongful deaths and injuries occurred, and;
9. The crime of silence (see Part 18 below).
WHY IT’S MURDER:
All of the above activities were (and are) crimes that equated to felonies. When a felony results
in deaths the perpetrators can be charged with murder. My calculations, based on the Federal Emergency
Management Agency (FEMA) fire loss data, indicate that probably more than 75,000 fire deaths have
occurred within “smoke detector protected” homes. Because the devices were confirmed as being
defective more than three decades ago, it required many people within the fire community to continue to
deceive the public relative the endangerment. As the deceptions continued, the number of victims
increased rapidly. This could not occur without the cooperation of many; therefore it was a conspiracy.
When one or more persons are involved in a deadly conspiracy, all can be charged with the crimes.
THE PERFORMANCE LIES:
The manufacturers claimed, within full page ads within the Fire Journal, a publication of the
NFPA that: their devices “would warn of potential fires before flames or smoke appeared”.
Apparently these false performance claims within the NFPA publication over a period of 15 years
convinced the fire chiefs to promote the devices and seek legislation to require installations of these
devices in homes. Some direct quotes from these ads are provided below:
1. September 1965 - PYR-A-LARM: “PYR-A-LARM FASTEST Fire & Smoke Detector
Available.” “The PYR-A-LARM reacts immediately to the invisible products of combustion
before there is visible smoke, heat or flame.”;
2. July 1966 - BRK Electronics, Inc.: “3 Minutes are worth half a dozen fire engines.” The BRK
Electronics Fire Detector gives an alarm MINUTES, HOURS; even DAYS earlier . . . Before
there is smoke, before there is fire . . . the BRK fire detector picks up the invisible gases of
combustion and triggers the alarm.” The BRK Electronic Fire Detector is listed by
Underwriters’ Laboratory, the New York Board of Standards and Appeals, the California
State Fire Marshal and other fire control organizations throughout the world.”;
3. May 1972 - SmokeGuard: (Picture of a baby holding a security blanket) “COMFORTING but
hardly a life saver!” Statitrol has a brand new ‘security blanket’ that helps protect your home
and family against the dangers of fire.” ”Operating on the ionization principle, SmokeGuard
senses danger - sounds a warning - gives you time to react - before you can even see it or
smell it”, and;
4. July 1972 - Honeywell-The Automation Company: Honeywell helps detect fires before they
start.” “The new detectors see “unseen” particles of combustion . . . in fire’s incipient stage.
The stage where you can do something about it! . . . Before smoke, flames and heat buildup.
Before sprinklers are activated.”
the standard for fire detection in the home. That standard called for real (photoelectric) smoke detectors
in the home for smoldering fires and heat detectors for flaming fires. But first the NFPA reps indicated
that the code should be revised to eliminate reliance on heat detectors and that the smoke detector
(meaning the ionization device) could provide all the protection needed.
Before the Dunes Tests began, Mr. Bright largely completed the rewrite of the code as the
NFPA reps requested. Then he was appointed to be the Washington monitor of the Dunes Tests. If the
tests proved the changes already made in NFPA 74 were wrong both Mr Bright and the NFPA would
be in difficult positions. Accordingly, the computer generated data (obtained during each test) were
divided into sections and so arranged in the rear of the report. Before any analysis of value could be
made one would first have to extract the pertinent data for that specific test from the many sections
where it was located and put it all together again. I know this was not an easy thing to do because I did
it. When Fire Protection Engineers write reports usually (unfortunately) other engineers tend to accept
the analysis and not examine the raw data or question the conclusions. Up in the front of the report it
was stated: “In general, all smoke detectors responded well to all fires.” That proved to be one of the
deadliest lies ever told. To my knowledge, I am the only fire professional who went behind the (up
front) lies, re-organized the basic data and evaluated it. Then I wrote my 1976 “Smoke Detector
Fraud” report and distributed approximately 3,000 copies of it to fire chiefs and fire industry
professionals across America.
2. Have you conducted smoke detector tests similar to those carried out at at Texas A & M
University following several exposés such as WTHR Indiana’s ‘Deadly Delay’, CBS Atlanta’s
‘Deadly Smoke Detectors’, and News Channel 5 Tennessee’s ‘An Alarming Failure’?, and;
3. If not, why not? If yes, why haven’t you warned the American public?
Note: I do not question the intelligence of the FM engineers; I question their integrity.
8. Donald F. Steel, president of Electro Signal, a maker of photoelectric type smoke detectors,
reported that he had conducted actual fire tests with persons present in the room with the smoke
and that when the smoke reached 4 percent “everyone was choking and running for the door”.
The Business Week report was published in 1977, over three decades and tens of thousands of needless
deaths and injuries ago. This report establishes the fact that the inherent problems with the ionization
type so-called smoke detector had been well documented and known by the fire industry in 1977.
However, UL did not and still have not (as at the time of writing this article - May 2010), made the
discussed corrections in their smoke alarm standards testing (UL217). The NFPA never made the needed
corrections in their codes. Both the fire engineers and the fire service officials helped cover-up the fraud
for more than three decades after the scope of the dishonesty became known, despite thousands of
needless fire deaths and injuries every year.
Note: - The Business Week article will be e-mailed upon request: rmpatton@surewest.net
- More information about UL’s fraudulent testing of smoke alarms, their claims to correct their flawed smoke
alarm standard (UL217), and their failure to do so, is at: www.TheWorldFireSafetyFoundation.org/ul
- Standards Australia has acknowledged that the Australian Standard for smoke alarms (AS3786) is
flawed and has corrected/rewritten the flawed standard: www.TheWorldFireSafetyFoundation.org/sa
problem from the public? Was it because fire officials and the FPEs were so deeply involved they feared
the consequences of telling the public the truth? Was it to protect their jobs? There has been a concern
among the fire services that if the means to control the early fire was allowed into homes most fires would
be extinguished without need of the remote firefighters. And, the fire engineers were “engineering” in
accordance with the dictates of the NFPA codes. The codes were their “expertise” and when engineering
logic disagreed with the corrupted code, it was expedient to go with the code. Those fire engineers who
worked most closely with the fire insurance industry and the NFPA, and who fronted for those
organizations as “independents” and were referred to as “hired guns” were very successful.
“We put 50 million smoke detectors in buildings in America in a two year period and our
fire loss and death rate goes up. We’re having a little trouble explaining these things.”
Source: Gordon Vickery, former head of the U.S. Fire Admin, Fire Engineering Magazine, September, 1980.
“Residential fire death rate increases nearly 20 percent over 1984 residential death
rate with over 100 million smoke detectors installed in American homes.”
Source: NFPA Fire Journal, November 1986, page 44.
The following quotes expose the truth about ionization smoke alarms:
“I have often been cautioned that I should be quiet, “because we do not want the public
to lose faith in smoke detectors.” This statement implies that lives will be lost if we
we tell the American public the truth. I think the exact opposite is true . . . How
many lives have been lost because the American public was not told the truth?”
Source: Deputy Chief, Jay Fleming, Boston Fire Department, in an extract from a letter to
the US Fire Administration, October, 2006. From ‘The CAN Report’ February, 2007, page 6.
“The average person buys a smoke alarm, in the genuine belief that, before their house fills
with smoke from a smoldering fire, they will be given sufficient warning to safely escape;
regrettably this is absolutely NOT what will happen if they rely on an ionization smoke alarm.”
Source: David Isaac, Standards Australia Committee FP002 from the report,
‘New Zealand Fire Service - Saving Face or Saving Lives?’ May, 2006. page 4.
“A smoke detector that sounds approximately 19 minutes after smoke reached its sensing
chamber is like an airbag that does not deploy until 19 minutes after a car accident.”
Source: The Hon David Schoenthaler, Mercer vs BRK, (04/98), from ‘TheMore quotes on
Can Report’, next
Feb, page
2007, . . 9.
page .
“We have five million smoke detectors in this state that are
ionization smoke detectors, that may fail in the time of need.”
Source: Indiana State Fire Marshal, Roger Johnson, September, 2007.
“Early warning is the key to surviving smoldering fires - the deadliest kind of home
fire. ‘Ionization-only’ smoke detectors ... are slow to warn if they warn at all
of smoldering fires, which typically occur while occupants are sleeping.”
Source: Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP, Massachusetts, USA, from the class action law suit
document, ‘Class Action Complaint And Jury Demand’ - Introduction, June, 2008 page 1, para 2.
“It’s time to warn the public that almost everyone’s smoke alarms are dangerously defective.”
Source: Adrian Butler, Chairman, The World Fire Safety Foundation
from, ‘The Volunteer Fire Fighter’ Magazine, October, 2009, page 34.
“We are asking everyone to consider replacing their current Ionization Smoke Detector(s)
with Photoelectric Detector(s). Studies have shown that Ionization Smoke Detectors
have a failure rate over 55 percent of the time in smoldering fires.”
Source: Captain Mark Walsh, Colerain Fire Department, Ohio, in an, ‘Urgent Message
From Your Fire Department’, sent to Condo & Apartment Associations, 04 December, 2009.
“If you think the smoke detector you have in your home will save your life if there’s a
fire, you could be deadly wrong. Firefighters say almost one out of every two people
who die in a house fire die when there’s a working smoke detector in the home.”
Source: Jennifer Mayerle, CBS Atlanta’s, Emmy Award Winning Journalist. From the
‘Deadly Smoke Detectors’ Exposé, Atlanta, Georgia, October, 2009 ~ February, 2010, page 7.
“Here is what is ironic. We are the greatest technological nation on Earth. We can have troops
on the other side of the globe and a soldier can be pinned down under enemy fire and radio
for help. We have the capacity to surgically send a missile to take out the threat against the
against the soldier. However, we knowingly let people go to sleep at night with a product we
call a smoke alarm that has trouble detecting smoke. What is shameful is that good people
have been alerting us to this problem for decades and it has been intentionally ignored.”
Source: Dean Dennis, Co-Founder, ‘Father’s for Fire Safety’ from an email sent to
CBS Atlanta about their ‘Deadly Smoke Detectors’ exposé, 11 March, 2010.
“Given the weight of evidence surrounding the efficiency of different smoke alarm types,
it is not enough that standards, regulatory, and fire safety organisations recommend
photoelectric smoke alarms - they have a duty of care to warn the public of
the known, life-threatening limitations of ionization smoke alarms.”
Source: Karl Westwell, Co-Founder, CEO, The World Fire Safety Foundation
October, 2008. From ‘The Key Report’, 12 April, 2010, page 15.
detector on the ceiling with the “smoke detector tester” it will operate. Then he assures the lady of the
house that all is well and your children will be safe).
Well, for a while it was a nasty situation. Dan Quinan, the State Fire Marshal, insisted that a
smoke detector should be able to detect ‘real’ smoke. But that is not what the codes said. The code
required an installation as per the fire code and when the official smoke detector tester caused the
ionization device to operate, then everything was fine. Why couldn’t that guy from Carson City follow
the rules? Eventually, the Las Vegas fire officials and the casino bosses prevailed. Dan, the State Fire
Marshal, was told to stay out of Las Vegas. They did not need his advice. But Dan was a man who
believed that code compliance was not enough. He truly believed that a smoke detector should be
able to detect real (visible) smoke. That was a novel concept within the fire regulatory field. One day
his honesty and concerns would cost him his job.
Note: In the late 1990’s, Adrian Butler (Australia) and Karl Westwell (New Zealand), discovered
the problem with ionization smoke detectors. They also discovered that the Australian Standard
for smoke detectors was dangerously flawed. After they took their concerns to the appropriate
authorities and were ignored, they created The World Fire Safety Foundation to bring awareness
and change to the flawed Standards testing of ionization smoke detectors globally.
In 2006 they developed a simple but incredibly powerful demonstration to show how
ionization smoke detectors would not safely activate in real-world, smoldering fires. After the
Foundation’s ‘Aquarium Test’ resulted in live fire testing of ionization detectors in Australia, New
Zealand and across America, the truth about their deadly defects began to be exposed around the
world. The Aquarium Test, conducted by one of America’s leading investigative journalists, is on
the Foundation’s home page at: www.TheWorldFireSafetyFoundation.org
Thanks to the work of the Foundation, the Australian Smoke Alarm Standard has been
corrected/rewritten and is pending adoption into Australian law and Fire Services in Australia and
New Zealand have joined the push to mandate photoelectric smoke detectors. I am increasingly
hopeful that the ionization smoke detector fraud will be fully exposed and the Foundation’s
mission will soon be realized, to ‘Stop The Children Burning’.
within the World Trade Center disaster. But of course no “fire expert” will ever admit it - and if they
do, who will believe them?
PART 17: DO NOT PUT THAT FIRE OUT - THE FIRE PROFESSION
MAKING SURE ONLY FIREFIGHTERS CONTROL FIRES:
Controlling the fire is the job of the paid firefighters. They do not appreciate others who
infringe on their profession duties. So the fire officials make it clear that when there is a fire, do not
put it out; call us - we put the fires out.
The NFPA code prohibitions against sprinklers were one manifestation of this policy. Falsifying
fire tests to justify substituting phony (ionization) smoke detectors for honest (photoelectric and heat)
fire detectors was another. If the occupant does not get an early warning of fire the chance they will be
able to put it out without help from the fire department is slim.
Another way to prevent the control of the early fire by the occupants is to give them inadequate
fire control equipment. A fog nozzle on a small diameter hose installed in the home would be a
magical suppressor of the early fire if the home, assuming the home also contained a real fire detection
system. The firefighters are equipped with fog nozzles that are Underwriters’ Laboratory approved for
use on transformer banks and electrical stations with hundreds of thousands of volts. High voltage
current will not flow back along the fog because there are air gaps between the drops. But a fog nozzle
has never been made available for a small hose for the amateur firefighter for in home use.
THE “BEWARE OF ELECTRICITY” CON JOB:
The fire “experts” claim that using water spray in the home would endanger the user because of
possible electric shock (110 volts, not the 100,000 volts where the firefighter may direct their fog). But,
it was OK to sell a small fire extinguisher that emitted a pencil thin straight stream of water for 50
seconds because almost no one ever extinguished a firewith that thing, (incidentally, that straight
stream would be more likely to conduct a very high voltage fed current). However, even that small
straight steam would not present a shock problem in the home. When inspectors examine the ruins of a
building where many lives were lost, almost invariably they find several spent fire extinguishers that
failed to put the fire out. If a fog from a small, easy to handle hose, had been directed at the early small
fire it would have been a near certainty that the fire would have been killed quickly with no lives lost.
The propaganda against using water on electrical equipment is so effective that when two actual
firefighters had a hose (from a nearby building hose station) ready to apply water to the early fire in the
MGM hotel, although they were trained to handle that sized hose, they decided not to use it. Even the
trained firefighters incorrectly feared an electrical shock.
BEWARE THOSE EXPENSIVE HOSE STATIONS:
The hose stations in high rise buildings, office buildings, schools, apartment houses and similar
buildings are essentially useless to the non professional fire fighter. They hose is 1-1/2 inch size and it
requires two or more professional firefighters to handle it. When pressurized it is extremely difficult to
handle and to move about. It has to be pulled completely off the rack before the water is turned on,
otherwise the water will not flow. Then, with one man at the business end and one at the valve, when
the valve is opened the high pressure water will rush through the hose to the inexperienced man with
the nozzle in his hands.
As the water flows the hose stiffens possibly unbalancing the man. Then, when the high pressure
water hits the nozzle the reaction can tear the nozzle right out of the amateur’s hands. Fortunately, the
average person must sense that the hose is for profits and show only, so it is rarely used and almost never
effective in the hands of the untrained. The firefighters will not use that hose because it may be old, rotted
and unsafe. The firefighters bring their own hose. So why are these stations mandated by NFPA code?
Because they are profitable to sell and install and near certain to not put the fire out.
NFPA had been promoting the idea that any person trapped in a fire should crawl out below the smoke
to safety. Following the hotel fire it was discovered that a young lady did indeed crawl along the
corridor to exit the building. The NFPA saw this survivor as a confirmation of the wisdom of their
“crawl out” promotions. So, the representative told her story stressing that she was a bright young and
athletic gal with the implication that she lived because she followed the advice of the NFPA. Of
course, it was anyone’s guess as to whether she would have escaped just as well, perhaps even more
safely, if she ran out fast instead of crawling out slow. One thing for sure, if you are still within the
building when flashover occurs and black smoke at a thousand degrees F. comes down the corridor
toward you, you better be moving fast.
But, what concerned me more was the clear implication that if those who had died followed this
NFPA strategy for survival, probably they too might have lived. This was typical NFPA, using a deadly
fire to promote the NFPA. And the implication was dead wrong. Those who died in that hotel were
trapped within a meeting room when a flash fire from a non-sprinklered basement raced up an open
stairway and down the non-sprinkler protected corridor, completely blocking exits from the meeting
room before most could react. Those trapped made every possible effort to escape including throwing
chairs at the large windows to be able to leap to safety. But the speed of the flashover fire killed many
before they could escape.
It was the anti sprinkler policies and corrupted sprinkler design codes of the NFPA that resulted
in near 100 percent of the “Life at Risk” type properties (including hotels) being devoid of sprinklers. If
the building had been sprinklered the victims would have lived. Even though sprinklers were not
installed in that hotel, if the building at least had been equipped with a reliable fire detection system,
the victims probably would have had a warning in time to escape prior to being trapped by a major
flashover fire.
A LADY WHO CRAWLED:
The fire problem with apartments is that often the window is too high above ground to exit and
the path from the bedroom to the exit door is via the living room adjoining the kitchen. Thus the exit
path is through the area most likely to become deadly very quickly in a fire. Then add in the fact that
the NFPA gave the American public a phony (ionization) smoke detector to warn the sleeping occupant
of the fire. I received a report on a fire one time where the lady, trapped in an apartment bedroom,
crawled through the fire area to the door and escaped. The lady next door who answered the victim’s
desperate screams and banging said that the victims back was actually on fire when she opened the
door (radiant heat from the super-hot ceiling). And, as she crawled her hands were sinking into a carpet
than was so hot that it was becoming plastic and sticking to her hands.
The lady had a job that required typing and her fingers were burned to the bone. She never
regained full use of them again. Her job skills were taken away from her. So, would this victim had
been better off to grab a blanket from her bed, drape it over her head, take a deep breath and then hold
her breath as she bent low and moved fast through the fire area to the door? Probably the exposed time
would have been less than ten seconds. Of course second guessing has no real value relative a panic
situation where calm analysis is unlikely. But I can say this with certainty; because the NFPA helped
put phony smoke detectors into 80 million homes an enormous number of victims have paid for this
fraud with their lives, or in the case of the lady above, maimed for life.
that over many decades the same fires repeat. For example, here are a few of the disasters of like kind
resulting from similar defective NFPA fire code policies:
1903 - 602 dead. Iroquois Theatre Fire - Chicago;
1908 - 170 dead. Rhodes Opera House Fire - Pennsylvania;
1908 - 175 dead. Lakeview Grammar School Fire - Ohio;
1911 - 145 dead. Triangle Shirtwaist Fire - New York;
1940 - 207 dead. Rhythm Club Fire - Mississippi;
1940 - 119 dead. Winecoff Hotel Fire - Atlanta;
1942 - 492 dead. Cocoanut Grove Fire - Boston;
1958 - 95 dead. Lady of Angels School Fire - Chicago;
1963 - 63 dead. Golden Age Nursing Home Fire - Missouri;
1977 - 165 dead. Beverly Hills Supper Club Fire - Kentucky, and;
2003 -100 dead. Station Nightclub Fire - Rhode Island.
Note that all of these fires happened within a “place of assembly” and for decades the NFPA not
only did not require sprinklers in places of assembly, but the codes were structured to make it
extremely and unnecessarily costly to protect these buildings. It is beyond reasonable doubt that every
one of these fires could have been controlled promptly with virtually no casualties if the NFPA had not
created codes that effectively prevented proper fire protection from being installed in these buildings.
TWO REASONS FOR RIGGING TESTS TO DISCREDIT HEAT DETECTORS:
During the Indiana Dunes Tests the engineers deliberately rigged the tests to justify removing
heat detectors from the NFPA code so that phony smoke detector could under-protect homes. But there
was a second objective to the rigging of the tests to discredit heat detectors. The fire sprinkler system is
a near 100 percent guarantee that the building will not burn and the occupants will not die. But the
NFPA for decades had been able to prevent fire sprinkler systems from being installed into close to 100
percent of all buildings constructed.
Only the high valued, high hazard, buildings that the insurance industry wanted to be protected
were sprinklered. Therefore, the manufacturers of the ionization device saw another market (besides
homes) to be exploited. Full page ads were placed in the NFPA Fire Journal promoting smoke
detectors as an alternate to sprinkler for those properties not normally sprinkler protected. The false
concept that heat detectors (sprinkler heads) would not operate to apply water until after fire deaths
(due to the smoke) would have already occurred was a central theme.
HEAT DETECTORS ARE THE BEST DETECTORS FOR THE MOST DEADLY FIRE:
The heat detector is best for detecting the fast growing fire that produces temperatures well
above a thousand degrees F. Actual fire tests in real homes have proven that the ignition of one
upholstered chair or sofa can proceed to a room flashover condition in as little as three or four minutes.
Once flashover has occurred, conditions throughout a home turn deadly so rapidly that escape is often
impossible. The manufacturers of the ionization device, in an effort to diminish the importance of the
heat detector and exaggerate the value of the ionization device, promoted the idea that 75 percent of all
fires develop as smoldering fires and that the smoldering fire (best detected by a smoke detector) was
responsible for nearly all fire deaths.
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Why America Is Burning
These were just some more lies by businesses that depended on lies to sell their products. The
truth is nearly all fire deaths are the result of flaming fires and the heat detector is without peer when it
comes to reliably warning of the fast and deadly flaming fire. A complete fire detection system
consisting of heat detectors throughout a home and smoke detectors in rooms where there is a serious
potential for a smoldering fire (bedrooms and living rooms at least) will likely reduce fire deaths by an
excess of 90 percent, possibly 95 percent.
But, the entire project could be halted as the challenge is heard by a court of law. And in the
end, almost always the demand of the fire inspector is upheld. So, the inspector reigns supreme and his
weapon is a set of fire codes, mainly written by committee members who are far more interested in
gaining profits from fire, and much less interested in saving lives. And, let us not forget that by
denying affordable fire sprinklers systems and reliable fire detectors to the builders, the American burn
rate is maintained sky high which in turn justifies an abundance of fire stations, equipment, manpower
and political muscle.
sprinklers flowing water where there was no fire - yet. By guaranteeing extra heads would open, the
pressure and density directly over the fire would be reduced. Of course, the greater the number of
sprinklers that opened where there was no fire, the greater the drop in pressure and density at the site of
the fire. Therefore, the fire would grow even larger, the heat at the ceiling would spread farther, more
sprinklers would open where there was no fire, and the fire would grow larger yet. Eventually,
hopefully, the firefighters would arrive and put water directly onto the fire and not elsewhere, assuming
they could still get close to the fire. Even though the system was designed either by graduate
engineering idiots or the sprinkler industry designers (who were without fault because they were taught
the NFPA code way) nearly always the sprinklers would hold the fire at least to the degree that the
firefighters could get it controlled.
The day after the fire was extinguished the insurance inspector would arrive and count how
many heads had opened. Then he would congratulate his engineers. You designed it for two acres of
open heads and that’s how many opened. How brilliant you are! If they designed it for adequate density
over the early fire, the open heads would have been four or less, probably requiring less than a hundred
gallons a minute for maybe ten minutes. But nobody wanted that.
The NFPA sprinkler and water supply codes accomplished three things that were much
appreciated: less than ten sprinkler companies controlled nearly all the work nationally, the fire
inspector became a mechanical and hydraulic engineer the moment he purchased the codes, and
roughly 99 percent of all buildings remained unprotected and fully burnable.
“failure”. If the thermocouple revealed that the ceiling temperature rose to a thousand degrees, how
could that information prove the heat detector would have failed to operate if it had been installed?
Such inane logic from “engineers” was not the exception; it was the norm. The NFPA codes were
written by special interest committee members attempting to structure codes to help sell a product.
Logic and engineering principles meant nothing to the profit oriented committee members. Therefore,
finding sensible answers to deliberately corrupted fire codes was not easy.
Note: My 1992 letter to the NFPA is at: www.TheWorldFireSafetyFoundation.org/nfpa92
alternate protection for sprinklers. The basic concept was, don’t put out the fire, it is much more fun to
shift the smoke and the people around.
The reality is that many of these elaborate systems that are installed in high rises, hospitals and
other major structures never pass the final testing. Sometimes there are tests and disputes and more
tests and more disputes until finally the systems are signed off. The owners get tired of trying to get
them to perform as expected. Assuming the system does finally perform to the specifications, and is
working perfectly when signed off; don’t assume it will stay that way. These systems are strongly
oriented towards smoke detectors. If a smoke detector within a duct works and the damper functions
during a fire, probably it is more luck than professional skill. As time passes the smoke detectors begin
to become loaded with dust and other foreign materials. False alarms become common. It is expensive
to be replacing them. Also, it is difficult to find well trained technicians for maintaining these systems
and expensive if you do. There is a common solution to the problem of maintaining them, however.
The solution is to disconnect the devices that are false alarming or to kill the worst performing circuits
or, perhaps take the entire system out of service.
If a well trained fire detection system technician (which eliminates fire department inspectors)
were to go to any large city in America and test fire detection and alarm systems in 100 large buildings,
I believe that 75 percent of them would not be in fully functional and some would be virtually useless.
Those that are central station monitored would do much better but I would still expect many of the
smoke detectors to be disconnected.
The smoke detector industry, with the help of UL, the NFPA, the SFPE
and the IAFC has put most Americans at risk, at work and at home
and is one of the primary reasons Why America is Burning.
PART 24: DO NOT PUT THAT FIRE OUT - THE ECONOMY OF FIRE
FIRE SPRINKLERS WERE THE ENEMY OF THE INSURANCE INDUSTRY:
I realized early in my career that fire sprinkler systems represented a near 100 percent solution
to the fire problem in buildings. However, this was dangerous to my career. A fire engineer from a
major insurance broker told me that one time, when he was new to the field; he was inspecting a plant
with an enormously high insurance rate and suggested to the plant manager that if he installed
sprinklers his rate would drop so dramatically that he could pay off the system in just a few years. But
when he got back to the office, his manager ,who had been contacted by the plant manager about
sprinklers, was furious with him. He called him into his office and warned him if he ever told a plant
manager to install sprinklers again he would be fired. The economics is that insurance on a high valued
plant that is creating a two hundred thousand dollar per year commission for the broker might drop to,
say, thirty thousand if sprinkler protected. The NFPA was created by the fire insurance industry in 1896
to create a fire code that set the requirements for the sprinkler system so complex and so costly that it
would be installed only within the high risk industrial properties where the insurers needed protection
to make the property an acceptable insurance risk.
Sometime during the 20th Century the fire officials in America realized that the fire sprinkler
was so effective at controlling the early fire that the sprinkler system was the enemy of the fire services.
Therefore the fire chiefs, by and large, have cooperated in the code writing to severely limit the
sprinkler installations. However, within the fire services there has always been a minority that actively
promoted sprinklers because fire was so deadly. They are real humanitarians. The end result is that
sprinklers have finally been allowed to be installed in many building types where they were not
installed previously. But the NFPA regulations have been able to severely limit these installations.
There is only one logical solution to fire and I advocated it many years ago.
It is a simple and cost effective solution.
Put the Fire out Before it Grows Large and Deadly!
was seriously corrupted by the NFPA code making system. Much to my regret, my fellow fire
engineers have chosen to key what is termed fire engineering to the NFPA codes. The result in my view
is ‘Voodoo Engineering’.
I have proven that the existing water line to the great majority of small and compartmented
buildings will suffice for sprinkler protection. The average number of sprinklers that operate due to a
fire in what the NFPA terms “light hazard” occupancy (I term it “life at risk property”) is less than two.
And, for this property type a 10 gallon per minute (gpm) flow per sprinkler (small orifice) will provide
excellent control of the early fire. The NFPA code has far too often prevented sprinklers from being
installed unless a 4 or 6 inch line is run from the street main to the building (at costs that can go as high
as $50,000). Often $40,000 is spent on UL listed fire pumps whereas an inline centrifugal (non-UL
listed) could be installed for $1,000.00.
The evidence that the ionization device is a phony smoke detector and a killer of children has been
common knowledge within the fire engineering community for more than three decades. How many of
the approximately 5,000 fire engineers have dared to warn the public relative this endangerment?
My guess is about three at most. Do they have a “duty of care” responsibility to warn/protect the public?
As indicated above, although the corruption relative sprinklers and fire detectors may head the list
of voodoo fire engineering, the corruption is endemic in the entire fire protection field. Reluctantly, I
have to admit that fire engineers in America has been “in bed” with the NFPA. And I consider the NFPA
to be America’s number one serial killer of children during the 20th century.
EVIL PERSISTS
WHEN GOOD PEOPLE
DO NOTHING
Richard M Patton
Fire Protection Engineer
President, The Crusade Against Fire Deaths
Author, ‘The American Home Is A Fire Trap’
R M Patton: Credentials
Email: rmpatton@surewest.net
www.FireCrusade.com
www.AmericasHolocaust.org
www.TheWorldFireSafetyFoundation.org