Organic Vapors Emitted from the Plumes of Pool Fires on Carpet Material

When an accelerant is poured onto an absorbent material, such as carpet pile, it is absorbed into the material. Once ignited, the accelerant is heated and the carpet pile acts as a wick, which feeds evaporating accelerant into the fire plume. This paper deals with the analysis of the volatile material on the edge of the fire plume. Charcoal strips have been used to adsorb the volatiles and Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry used to analyze the extracts from the charcoal strips. The technique has been used successfully to identify the accelerant burnt on the pile, from the chromatographic profile of the gases in the plume.