Veteran Cincinnati firefighters say even the firefighters injured at the Indian Hill house fire have reason to feel fortunate.
One of the reasons so many firefighters were hurt battled that intense house fire in Indian Hill last night, was how this house fire behaved.
Speculation is that firefighters experienced either a "backdraft" or a "flashover" while many of them were inside trying to bring the blaze under control.
It's believed the injured firefighters may have survived either a back draft – where a smouldering, dying fire suddenly explodes when exposed to an influx of air – or a "flash over" – where everything gets so hot, it bursts into flames from floor to ceiling.
Firefighters on the scene say that one minute they were both outside and inside of the Cunningham Road house taking down the fire.
The next thing they heard was a loud explosion from inside, that blew windows out.
Cincinnati Fire Captain Robert Pope says that's what a "flashover" can do.
It can suddenly heat up an entire room or floor to hundreds of degrees as everything catches fire all at once.
Captain Pope tells 9News, "Typically, a fire will flash over at 400 to 500 degrees. That's the ignition temperature of most combustibles made out of wood, paper, cardboard, plastics. It's 400 degrees."
The 30-year fire department veteran says that intense heat can easily cause uniforms and masks to melt and skin underneath uniforms to burn.
He showed us several of the fire training tapes (courtesy of the Cincinnati Fire Department) he uses to warn new recruits about flash overs.
On the tape, you can see wooden pews and a table. After the fire spreads over the ceiling with thick black smoke and then sparks and flames, you can see the gas start to rise off the top of the pews and table. That means they're reaching ignition temperature.
Capt. Pope says of the demonstration, "The off-gassing of different things. They're all being heated up by radiant heat. Another warning sign of a pending flashover is the heating up of the gas from our oxygen tanks and the feeling of increased heat on our shoulders and backs."
Pope says flashovers are not only becoming more common, but also they're happening more quickly.
He blames new high-tech plastics, fabrics and chemicals used in furniture.
He adds, "The fires are getting a lot hotter and the time from the start of the fire to when it flashes-over is getting shorter. It's a lot less than it was 30 years ago, when I first came aboard."
Captain Pope says he's come close, but he's never been directly trapped in a burning building during a flashover.
With what happened inside that large Indian Hill mansion last night, Captain Pope feels the injured firefighters are very lucky because flashovers and backdrafts have killed firefighters.
