Research on the toxicity of pine timber treated and non-treated with fire retardants

Abstract

Meanly 280 people annually in Lithuania lost their life in fires during the last five years. Intoxication by toxic combustion waste was the main reason that caused death. Flames, high temperature, failure of structures, reduced visibility – are other common reasons for causing loss of life. The time interval till inflammation and the toxicity of structures influence the evacuation time of people inside the building. The effective way to prolong time till inflammation of timber structures is to treat them with fire retardants. Depending on the heat flux fire retardants increase time till inflammation of timber structures several times, decelerates the flame spread and influences the amount of toxic waste. This paper analyses the combustion of timber, the emission of the carbon monoxide (CO), hydrochloric acid (HCL), hydrocyanic acid (HCN) and ammonia (NH3) from pine timber treated and non-treated with fire retardants during the process of thermal destruction. The toxicity of pine timber is assessed through the intensity of heat flux.