TV New Zealand with fire services broadcast full-scale furnished house burn trial showing how a scooter battery fire becomes unsurvivable after three minutes. A derelict house was repaired as necessary and furnished. An electric scooter lithium-ion battery was short circuited to catch fire, placed near a sofa and a small basket of clothes in the house living room. Within 30 seconds the fire is past the time you could control it yourself. At 1’30’’ the couch is ingulfed in fire, igniting curtains at the other side of the room, with flashover at around 2’30’’. To show the “inferno” of heat, firefighters show a bunch of plastic flowers at the door of the room being instantly incinerated. By 4 minutes the whole house is full of unsurvivable smoke, including rooms at the other side of the house, and by 4’30’’the whole house is engulfed in fire whereas the fire service arrive at around 7 minutes. By 20 minutes the house is totally destroyed.
Commentators underline the impact of window and door frames melting, windows breaking, and the dangers of the black smoke, which includes toxic and narcotic chemicals which inhibit escape, and which causes disorientation. The speed of fire spread is repeatedly visible and underlined by the firefighters and commentators, with the need for multiple escape routes and smoke alarms in every room.
“Live house burn broadcast demonstrates fire’s rapid escalation”, International Fire Safety Journal https://internationalfireandsafetyjournal.com/live-house-burn-broadcast- demonstrates-fires-rapid-escalation/
“Live on TV house burn reaches 700,000 to show the speed and danger of fire”, Fire & Emergency New Zealand https://www.fireandemergency.nz/incidents-and-news/news-and-media/live-on-tv-house-burn-reaches-700000-to-show-the-speed-and-danger-of-fire/
NZTV (New Zealand TV) Seven Sharp, 15th August 2023, TV audience of 700 000, already 50 000 view on YouTube. Photos from video YouTube NZTV Seven Sharp.
Watch the video: https://www.facebook.com/sevensharp/videos/844161003587032/
(fire from 2 – 15 minutes)