why do fire fighters enter a room full of smoke by crawling?

Question

this is a science qns.

Answer 1

There are several reasons that they crawl. In a fire situation smoke and heat rise and began to fill a room from the top down. By taking a crawling position it's sometimes possible to actually see the seat of the fire and extinguish it with minimal water damage, but that's not all. When opening a door oxygen can be introduced to a smoldering fire creating a flashover or backdraft situation, which is basically an explosion of flame. They can be fatal to a firefighter even in turnout gear and staying low is the safer. Also if a fire has burned through a floor, a firefighter will be less likely to fall through from a crawling position, The next reason is to search for victims. A person trapped in a fire room will either be down low on their own or passed out on the floor. Crawling on the floor makes for a more thorough search. Most if not all air in a fire room will be toxic, that's why firefighters will be wearing Self Contained Breathing Apparatus SCBA's when inside a burning building.

Answer 2

the answers were mostly on the right idea, but not exact

the temperature at the top of a room filled with smoke could be up to 1000 degrees. The protective clothing, helmet, air supply and mask, and fire protective suit would not last very long in that heat.

as for cleaner air, the air on the floor is probably in excess of 450 to 600 degrees if the fire has burned for more than a few minutes the air, if clean would sear the lungs, pharynx and result in death.

also in a fire, you can not see anything. it is pitch black inside a fire/smoke filled room

fire fighting is based on the concept of ventilation, where horizonal ventilation works best, the fire is given a chimney to send the superheated gases out, bringing in fresh air (cooler) added with the water or other agent to put out the fire.

there is a device called a hurricane that moves about 1 million cubic feet of air and 1000 gallons of water every 3 minutes that was feilded to clear rooms of fire and smoke, but I dont' know how it worked out.

fire has a triangle, fuel air heat remove one and you do not have a fire

Answer 3

fire fighters enter room full smoke crawling

Answer 4

Because hot air rises, smoke is hot and will fill the top of a room first. To avoid smoke they crawl.

Answer 5

Hey, hot air rises up, so does smoke. It's like a hot air ballon, they use hot air to fly in the air. So when firesighters get into a room or such, they hit the ground so they can see better, breathe better since the rancid smoke is looming up higher, usually up to the ceiling.

Answer 6

Yes the smoke goes up so they crawl so they can see. They are usualy wearing BA so breathing is not a problem, but it helps if they can see where they are going and whether there is anyone in there and so forth.

Answer 7

the same reason you wanna crawl out of a room full of smoke - it's where the cleanest air is.

Answer 8

I am assuming it is because the smoke would be thicker at the top of the room - therefore by crawling, they can see better.

Answer 9

Hot gas rises.
A room where the air at head height is lethally
hot might be livable at floor level.

Answer 10

Because all the smoke and heat rises and the cleanest and clearest and coolest air is at the bottom of the room.