Occasionally I see news stories like “man runs back into burning house and rescues beloved pet”
However, I’ve also been told that you will most likely die in seconds if you inhale the smoke. I’ve read that in a fire you have to crawl to escape. I’ve read that you have to sprint quickly through the flames if you have a chance (the exact opposite of crawling low?).
In: 223
17 years as a professional firefighter here. The rules are different because you wouldn’t have turnout gear and an air pack, like we use.
Buildings are compartmentalized. Even a hollow core wooden door, the lightweight crap you would find at Home Depot, will hold a fire back longer than you’d realize. Sheetrock is rated to withstand fire for some time before burning through. So long as you’re not actively in the same compartment as a fire, you have a shot at surviving. You’d have to stay super low, know the exact layout of the apartment, know exactly where the pet/child is (and it has to be a child or pet, because you’re not getting out with anything over 20 lbs), and hope that everything goes exactly right. It would be like trying to roll a 6 on several dice, and if one other number comes up in X amount of rolls, you lose.
The door to the fire compartment happens to be open? Dead. A window fails and air from the outside rushes in? The thermal stratification of the compartment is ruined, and you’re dead. The burning materials happen to include compounds that change to chemicals that turn into gasses more poisonous than you’d expect? Doesn’t matter that you only got a few breaths of them. Dead. (And you’d be surprised what’s in your home now that everything is plastic. Couch stuffing can emit hydrogen cyanide. Freon in AC or refrigerators turns to phosgene, which is a literal chemical weapon that can kill you in hours if you breathe in more than 100 parts per million).
What else could go wrong? If the air gets too hot, the smoke doesn’t even matter, because you’ll burn and scar the insides of your respiratory tract, and won’t be able to exchange the oxygen in your bloodstream. There’s the risk of collapse. Whether you’re in a single family home and piece of the structure fail, or plaster ceilings fall on you in an apartment.
Basically, you’re gambling on pure luck. And if the fire is past the first minute, your odds are exponentially low
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