Bonus question. When you do start a fire and it’s raging, why is it that sometimes the wood doesn’t even completely burn up?
In: Chemistry
The wood/materials in houses is already dried out, usually for a very long time. Firewood for a fire place/pit typically is dry, but is typically stacked outdoors where it can absorb moisture. If you have trouble with a fire place or pit, you have some moist wood.
Your premise is faulty.
It mostly doesn’t take minutes to burn down a house.
The house that’s fully engulfed in many cases was smoldering behind the walls for hours prior.
If you only knew how often burning down houses takes a while to be set ablaze. But it’s all a learning experience, if you’re not growing you’re dying.
I saw an episode of Forensic Files where this guy burned a lot of houses and other buildings. He just used a Bic lighter and held it against the wall till it caught.
I’d like to add to what other people have already said and mention that exterior walls, most ceilings, and some interior walls are filled with insulation. Technology has gotten better over the years, but that stuff still lights up very quickly. The second the small flame hits a wall with dry wood and insulation, the house is going to burn quickly.
Fuel, heat, and oxygen. Combine those and you have fire until one of the three is exausted.Uncontrolled fire spread is exponential. That is, the more stuff on fire, the more heat. We can assume in both a typical house, and fireplace, there is plenty of Oxygen. In the home, there is a vast mix of fuels that burn hot and fast, and fuels that burn slow and steady. Wood, which is the typical fireplace fuel, burns slow and steady, and may be harder to “catch on fire” than say your flammable curtains. But… The more fire spreads from the easy things, the more it spreads to the harder things because of the shear amount of heat. At some point, the fuel will be exhausted and you have a pile of ash on the foundation.
Bonus answer- Ash. Ash, believe it or not, is a poor conductor of heat, and can starve a fuel from access to oxygen. As a log burns undisturbed, a layer of ash forms around it, starving the underlying fuel of oxygen. After some time, the heat retained by the burning fuel is overcome by the lack of Oxygen and you are left with a charred log that snuffed itself out. Shake off the ash and it will burn with ease. That is what we commonly refer to as charcoal.
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