These Design Trends Are Major Fire Hazards
Open floor plans have been a trend for years - so much so that it's nearly impossible to watch a home renovation show that doesn't involve tearing down the walls to give a space more "breathing room." But firefighters are warning that opening things up opens you up to a huge safety risk.
When your main living areas are just one big, open space, a small fire can spiral out of control much faster than in a traditional house, because it has fewer barriers (or walls) to burn through, Gilbert Fire Battalion Chief Josh Ehrman told Arizona's 12 News. Firefighters demonstrated this for the news station, lighting a controlled fire behind a chair in a living room and showing how quickly it spread. In 30 seconds, the fire alarms were blaring - and in less than 10 minutes, the fire was billowing so much smoke it was no longer safe for people to breathe, so firefighters extinguished their experiment. By then, the entire living room and kitchen had been destroyed.
Open floor plans aren't the only problem. Often, part of creating that highly coveted “bright and airy” look involves also having an elevated ceiling and lightweight trusses to support it. Higher ceilings mean more air flow, so the fire can grow out of control even faster. Lightweight trusses tend to collapse faster than heavy-duty ones.
Combine all that with the sheer amount of furniture and accessories that are made using foam and plastic these days, and it’s easy to see why firefighters are freaked out.
“[Foam and plastic] burns twice as hot as normal cotton, wood, anything like that," Ehrman said. Not to mention that the fumes released from burning plastic can be deadly, putting you further at risk.
Upholstered furniture, with its highly flammable foam padding, are the biggest culprit in house fires that get out of control, according to a spokesperson for the National Association Of State Fire Marshals.
This isn’t the first time firefighters have warned about open floor plans - a simple Google search reveals stories dating back to 2011 cautioning against them – but that doesn’t mean you need to start reconfiguring your floor plan. Experts recommended making sure your fire alarms are all in good working order, and that you’re aware of how quickly a fire could spread in your home, so you can take every precaution against it.
Like G.I. Joe famously said, knowing is half the battle.
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