Navigating in a House Fire

I don't know why this struck me all of a sudden, but one night recently it occurred to me that if there were a fire in the middle of the night, and the house was quickly filling with smoke, would an LED or incandescent light cut through the smoke better to be able to get to my loved ones.

Your thoughts please.

Thanks,

Bash

If your house is really on fire you won't see a thing with any kind of flashlight unless it JUST started. Trust me, I've been in plenty of structure fires including having a house fire of my own.

Your best bet is to have a rehersed escape / safety plan and a meeting point outside.

Agreed. Know how to get out of your home blindfolded, with at least one alternate plan in case the first route is blocked.

Ditto Warlord's + Yucca's comments. You have precious little time from the start of a fire to do much of anything. In some cases it can literally be seconds. Children need to be taught how to exit the home without your help as soon as such training is practical and you absolutely must have a meeting place and wait there until the firefighters arrive so that they know everyone is out of the house safely. If they are unsure they will enter the house unnecessarily to conduct a search, and that has cost firefighters their lives.

Technically, an incandescent lamp will do better, but as the posts above indicate; flashlights are the least of your worries.

KeyGrip said:

Technically, an incandescent lamp will do better, but as the posts above indicate; flashlights are the least of your worries.

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Beam pattern and distance from the eyes are much more important than light source.

Hello Bash,

Welcome to CPF.

The fire department my son works for uses thermal imagers to see in smoky conditions. However, he also told me that in heavy smoke he can't see the screen in front of the face shield on his SCBA pack.

In light smoke, the fire engines have incandescent lights that are used for main lights, but the firefighters have personal lights. Some carry incandescent and others carry LED.

Tom

SilverFox said:

Hello Bash,

Welcome to CPF.

The fire department my son works for uses thermal imagers to see in smoky conditions. However, he also told me that in heavy smoke he can't see the screen in front of the face shield on his SCBA pack.

In light smoke, the fire engines have incandescent lights that are used for main lights, but the firefighters have personal lights. Some carry incandescent and others carry LED.

Tom

Click to expand...

The thermal imagers at the FD I volunteered on have a gasket around the edge so you can use it with an SCBA mask. It wouldn't do you any good unless you wanted to find the seat of the fire. Also, if you need to use one you should definately bring your own air!

But seriously, Yes FF's carry tons of lights. Mainly for overhauling the structure after the fire, moving around at night, doing inspections, etc. But I have yet to find any light that is useful in a fire. Navigation is done mainly by feel.

I have a fog machine, 1000w Eliminator, fun for playing with flashlights and lasers... But, when that fog is really thick you can't see anything but blinding light in your face... it's like shinning a light on a white wall but worse... I keep an amber & green glo-toob by my bed, I am more concerned with a rescue worker being able finding me in an emergency...

warlord said:

If your house is really on fire you won't see a thing with any kind of flashlight unless it JUST started. Trust me, I've been in plenty of structure fires including having a house fire of my own.

Your best bet is to have a rehersed escape / safety plan and a meeting point outside.

Click to expand...

Exactly. If the smoke is thick, you won't be able to see anything. If you do want a flashlight to try, look at the streamlight survivor (led or incan), propoly 4aa (incan or lux), or similar lights.

I agree with many of the points

The thing that really got me thinking was that my 2 year old daughter will be getting her "big girl" bed soon. This means that she won't be in a crib where I could easily find my way to. I understand that it is common for children to hide in such circumstances. I would never leave her.

Regards,

Bash

What we used to do to simulate smoke, was cover the face shield with wax paper.

You can always practice in the dark. See how well you really know the layout of your house. Remember to stay as low as possible.

better yet, just cover it with masking tape. best thing is to learn to navigate (even unknown rooms) without being able to see at all.

Even before smoke reaches critical opacity a light that is too floody or one held too close to the line of sight will be of no value.

Get low, down on the floor, that's the only way you have a chance of seeing anything.

And surviving.

i just recently had a similar experience this weekend. rushed into neighbor's burning house. The fire has just started, there were thick smoke in the whole neighborhood, but the fire is still contained inside the house, when i was near the gate, i really wanted to back out going in, but a lot of people where screaming and yelling for water and light to see if there were still people inside, a lot of brave volunteers were there, and still no sign of firefighters in the area, I decided to come in the compound as well with other volunteers just to give them some "light", I found out that even the T5 has no use in really thick smoke. I can only see things 5ft around the torch. another guy came in with a big halogen type spotlamp, the spot cut trough the smoke farther. i got to use the T5 and P3D in action that night.

Good thing that the firefighters came in before the fire gets out of hand.

Our department uses streamlight survivor's (incandescent) on all our trucks. members have to supply their own lights, so most use streamlights, mags, or the little garrity ones for your helmet.

Myself and a few other members use LED lights but they're of more use out side for crashes our injuries than inside.

both incandescent and LED have their roles