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Comment by xwdv | Hacker News Reader

I've never been in a raging fire, but the property seems to be very open and spacious with no obvious choke points, how does one end up so trapped, and without realizing a fire is breaking out?

My guess is he passed out from the smoke inhalation first while asleep and was burned.

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I can tell you from having been in a building that had a major fire, the speed with which smoke and fire spreads is hard to imagine. Within 30 seconds of the alarm, halls where filled with choking smoke.

I managed to exit without too much difficulty, but even with covering my face with my shirt, I was still coughing and black gunk coming out my nose for the rest of the day. Others needed oxygen support even after being in the smoke for minutes at most.

If you’re ever in a house or building when an alarm goes off, don’t think you have time to ponder the situation... just move outside to safety immediately.

Edit: Found some photos from that day.

http://archive.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/gallery/1...

A demonstration of how much can happen with a fire in 30 seconds:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsaLCdC3iWw

I used to work at the Davenport and recognized the building immediately from the pictures. I didn’t realize there was a major fire at One Broadway. Glad you made it out safely and thanks for the advice.

Incredible.

Maybe worth people checking up on videos like these from time to time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeiN_A-OSt8

(Turns out Thanksgiving is peak season for house fires.)

Thanks for sharing your story and important advice. I'm glad you made it out ok!

Everyone underestimates how fast house fires can grow. You can go from ignition to full raging everything-is-on-fire flashover in 3 minutes.

Yes smoke, it's also very disorienting. It can even trap you in a 10 by 10 room.

He apparently arrived at the hospital at 3 AM, [1] so there's a good chance he was asleep when the fire started.

> after arriving at a hospital in New London, Connecticut, at 3 a.m. on Nov. 18.

1: https://www.reviewjournal.com/business/former-zappos-ceo-dow...

Flashover happens amazingly fast.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=k-3UCGGizgc

Given that it seems to have occurred overnight, that seems pretty plausible.

My fire alarm goes off when I make toast. How can this happen?

People remove the batteries from smoke alarms precisely because they go off when they make toast...and then this happens.

In addition to what the other user said, people don't always have as many alarms installed as they should. There should be at least one on every floor.

But besides that, sometimes the fire just starts in an area that doesn't immediately set off the alarm due to whatever quirk of the floor plan and the passageways. If you're a heavy sleeper, and alone, in the time the alarm takes to wake you, the fire might have grown from that spot enough to block an exit.

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