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xiphiasSo, Father said he had some bookshelves he could give me, to finish of the shelves that go in our foyer, so we could have enough bookshelves to finish shelving our fiction, which would be a nice thing to do while Lis was in England.
But, I should really explain another part of the story, first.
About a month ago, my uncle Bob swung by the office of the family construction business. It was about eight o'clock at night, and he wanted to pick up some paperwork. He opened the door, and flames singed off his eyebrows.
He ran next door to the gas station, and called the fire department, explaining that he was calling from a gas station, and there was a really good fire going on next door, and please do something about it.
They did, and the family business is currently being run out of a trailer next to the burned-out building. Nobody was injured, but, well . . . I just saw the office tonight, and it's impressive. I borrowed Dad's flashlight, and I said, "Hey, Dad, I followed the fire inspectors around our fire and pestered them with questions -- can I see if I can tell where your fire started?"
I looked at the kitchen. "Wow. The fire flashed over, didn't it? The whole kitchen ceiling was burning. Oh, look -- I think the fire started over there, on the back wall -- am I right?"
I was -- Dad confirmed that the point I pointed to was the origin of the fire.
The smoke detectors had melted off the ceiling in the adjoining rooms. The plastic armrests on the chairs in adjoining rooms had melted.
The computers, of course, were quite a bit beyond toast.
The bookcases upstairs . . . well, they're now in our foyer.
They're nice bookcases. If I can manage to get them cleaned up enough to be non-smoky, they will do quite nicely for the rest of our books. If I can't, then I'll just throw them out, unless one of you likes the smell of flame-broiled books.
But, I should really explain another part of the story, first.
About a month ago, my uncle Bob swung by the office of the family construction business. It was about eight o'clock at night, and he wanted to pick up some paperwork. He opened the door, and flames singed off his eyebrows.
He ran next door to the gas station, and called the fire department, explaining that he was calling from a gas station, and there was a really good fire going on next door, and please do something about it.
They did, and the family business is currently being run out of a trailer next to the burned-out building. Nobody was injured, but, well . . . I just saw the office tonight, and it's impressive. I borrowed Dad's flashlight, and I said, "Hey, Dad, I followed the fire inspectors around our fire and pestered them with questions -- can I see if I can tell where your fire started?"
I looked at the kitchen. "Wow. The fire flashed over, didn't it? The whole kitchen ceiling was burning. Oh, look -- I think the fire started over there, on the back wall -- am I right?"
I was -- Dad confirmed that the point I pointed to was the origin of the fire.
The smoke detectors had melted off the ceiling in the adjoining rooms. The plastic armrests on the chairs in adjoining rooms had melted.
The computers, of course, were quite a bit beyond toast.
The bookcases upstairs . . . well, they're now in our foyer.
They're nice bookcases. If I can manage to get them cleaned up enough to be non-smoky, they will do quite nicely for the rest of our books. If I can't, then I'll just throw them out, unless one of you likes the smell of flame-broiled books.
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(no subject)
Date: 2005-11-05 03:36 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-11-05 03:56 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-11-05 04:09 am (UTC)Organic? Dude. Organic means carbon. 'Nuf said?
(no subject)
Date: 2005-11-05 04:10 am (UTC)Okay, now I'm being silly.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-11-05 04:26 am (UTC)As I understand it....
Date: 2005-11-05 04:43 am (UTC)Depends on the soot. Essentially, what happens when solid or liquid organic compounds burn is that the heat causes them to turn into vapor, which then mixes with air and burns. The vapor-releasing is two things -- the small molecules go away, and the big long molecules break apart into smaller ones. My impression is that the parts that break off usually contain more hydrogen than the bits that are left, so what ends up being left are these lumps of nasty long-chain lots-of-carbon stuff that's somewhere between tar and pure carbon and won't vaporize. It also tends to contain a lot of the heavy atoms that aren't part of the usual hydrocarbon stuff.
Even lumps of pure carbon will vaporize if they're hot enough for long enough, and so a really hot fire that's set up well doesn't soot.
A less-hot fire will produce soot that's mostly pure carbon -- buckeyballs, that sort of thing. This is a fairly dry soot, and probably doesn't smell too much, since pure carbon doesn't have much of a smell.
An even less-hot fire (which can be stuff that's off to the side of a hot fire) will produce soot that's a sticky stuff with a fair bit of hydrogen still in it, which is of course quite sticky and contains lots of nasty long-chain hydrocarbons, many of which are aromatics of unpleasant sorts, and many of which contain other atoms from whatever was burning (chlorine, for instance, in the case of many plastics), so that's what the "burnt" smell comes from.
I suspect that house fires produce mostly the latter sort of soot. And also fumes that permeate things along with the soot and make it smell like burned stuff.
Re: As I understand it....
Date: 2005-11-05 02:19 pm (UTC)Silly,too
Date: 2005-11-07 02:53 pm (UTC)