Flashlights as a safety factor in a fire

Gentlemen, I have read all about temporarily blinding "bad guys" with my trusty EDC flashlight but what can anyone here tell me about how useful a very bright flashlight is when I wake up in the middle of the night and the house, or the hotel room, is on fire? What about smoke? Is it like shining my brights on my car into fog? Would an LED be better than something made for long throw? Does a house fire usually short out the electricity in a house fairly quickly? For any Firemen who answer this; May God bless you and keep you safe. Thanks. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif

From reading previous posts, a tight and narrow beam would do a whole lot better than a broad beam. IMHO, I don't think that LED or incandescent would matter, so long as the beam is tight and narrow. Also, I would keep the flashlight down low to the ground, since you would only be illuminating more smoke the higher off the ground the flashlight went. Besides, you should be crawling on the ground anyways. As far as the power going out, I have no idea, sorry. Hope this helps.

Typically in fully involved structures the smoke is so thick that you can't even see your hand in front of your face. In that situation, no flashlight will cut it, plus if you didnt have an SCBA, you'd be in trouble anyway. All the lights we use (SL Survivor & Litebox) have very tight beams which cut better in partial smoke conditions. It was misting outside the other night so I took some shots of various lights, but here's one that will give you an idea of how sidespill reflects back. The following is a SF L4 vs a Mag LuxV on tight focus:

According to the Surefire website, the X200 has "Superior smoke-cutting ability". Probably used by tactical teams dealing with smoke grenades etc.

I agree with what has been said, a tight beam with no spill would be best (like the X200).

Also, I am aware that in many cases, fire cuts out the electricity in a building quite quickly. Any electrical device in the building that is powered (for example, power cables or power points) which is exposed to fire may trip the safety switches in the building. If the fire melts the insulation on the wiring, causes a short circuit then it is quite likely to trip the circuit breaker.

Jeff

Do you happen to have a beamshot of the same thing, using an ARC4?

If the fire melts the insulation of the wiring, the insulation will produce smoke and halogen which are hazardous to human life. That why the Low Smoke Zero Halogen cables are used in tunnels and underground where there is a requirement for increased flame resistance. Besides, emergency lighting with self-contained battery may also failure due to fire, shortage of battery power or poor maintenance etc. Therefore, with a good EDC flashlight, you may have a better chance to survive and escape from a building in case of fire or emergency.

Now, I always carry a regulated 3W LED flashlight in my EDC.

I'm a fireman so here goes.
The majority of house fires I've been to the electric is still on, maybe not in all areas but the mains normally haven't tripped.
MTFD17 has hit the nail on the head though, it's not like in films, if it's going well, you can't see 2 inches in front of you, I had a real bad bedroom fire last week and we couldn't even do a pressure gauge reading holding the gauge upto our face mask and shining a torch at the dial.
Granted the flashlights we use are pretty awful but anything would have struggled.

If we get a house fire we never rely on flashlights we use touch and thermal image cameras.

To protect you incase of a fire firstly make sure you have a working smoke alarm, this I can't stress enough and keep your bedroom door closed, an average door will keep the fire out 20 mins plus which will give you enough time to get help and the fire brigade.
Keeping low makes a big difference aswell
Make sure you know were the keys for the front / back doors are so you can get straight out
Discuss it with your family so everyone knows what to do if their was a fire.

When you check into hotels etc, just make a mental note of were the fire exits and what your means of escape will be.

Pardon me, but what is SCBA?

don't know about the SC, but I guess the BA stands for "breathing apparatus"

self contained breathing aparatus ie, not airlines

ah yes... thank you chipper! back to the topic of using flashlights in smoke, I never stay in my hotel room without a Surefire!

Hi Voltus, Self Contained Breathing Apparatus... would be my best guess..! Cordially, Richard...

Hello Ugrey,

I watch a special on fire safety a while back. The thing that stayed with me was knowing where you are at and formulating a plan for escape.

They took a family and checked them into a motel. The family had some time to settle in, then they blindfolded them, popped some smoke for realism, and they had to find their way out to safety. I believe the outcome was that they all died...

Our family did a blindfold drill and were able to exit our house with minimum difficulty. Non familiar locations would be quite a bit more challenging.

In minimal smoke, a light with a tight beam is best.

In thick smoke, breathing becomes the issue.

Tom

I know our city CERT program shows a fire safety video in class. It rips apart alot of misconceptions about house fires. The video shows a two man team entering about 20 feet inside a fully involved home in SCBA with a TV camera. You can't ANYTHING it's total blackout, then the camera light is flipped on and you can make out a hand at arms distance. Then it goes on to talk about inside temperatures being 85F at the floor and 900F at five feet above floor. Stand up, inhale, your dead. Usually at the end there is a long stunned silence before anybody speaks. Reality ain't anything like the movies.

GregR