When in a house filling with smoke is it better to hold your breath so as not to inhale smoke or breath heavily to inhale any oxygen you can?

Question

When in a house filling with smoke is it better to hold your breath so as not to inhale smoke or breath heavily to inhale any oxygen you can?

In: Biology

Answer 1

The other thing to think about beyond O2 are the byproducts of combustion – things like carbon monoxide and hydrogen cyanide. Also, the resultant byproducts depend on what is burning, but so much stuff is plastic based these days.

Also, fire uses O2 as part of the chemical reaction, so O2 levels may be low and cause associated symptoms.