Got a Light?

How often have you seen a sign saying something about not smoking because of oxygen? Ever wonder why? Well, in the fire science world, there is something that says you need several ingredients to make a fire. An illustration called the fire triangle teaches that you need fuel, heat, and oxygen to make a fire. So, oxygen is needed to make the fire burn, but since normal air around you is about 21% oxygen and the rest is stuff that really doesn't help fire burn, adding more oxygen is interesting to say the least.


For example, if you take a cigarette and let some oxygen flow through it, when you light it, you can watch it burn up completely in a few seconds. On the same line of thought, fire resistent clothing and lots of other unexpected things burn quite happily in the presence of some extra oxygen.


So with all of that lesson behind us, once again why not smoke with oxygen around? This picture answers that question.
This is what happens to that plastic oxygen tubing when you try to smoke with a nasal canula flowing oxygen. In a recent repeat of this relatively common problem, the elderly lady was able to escape without significant burns because when her bed caught on fire, she was able to beat the flames out with her prosthetic leg.