Lithium-ion battery (LiB) powered devices are in use every day and function as designed, however there have been reports of fatal fires involving LiB powered micro-mobility vehicles from around the globe. When a LiB fails and starts a fire, it is typically the result of the battery suffering thermal runaway. Failure of LIBs in micro-mobility vehicles has been shown to create a rapidly growing ignition source that is capable of igniting nearby combustible materials within the room of origin and forcing the room to flashover in less than a minute. The impact of such rapid-fire growth has been reported in the media around the world. This type of rapid-fire growth is almost unprecedented in residential buildings and calls into question: can residential sprinklers control such a rapidly developing fire? This study investigates the impact of such rapid-fire growth in a residential building with both full-scale bedroom and living room fires started from the thermal runaway of a LiB in a sit-on e-scooter. Results from this study quantify the impact of residential sprinklers and clearly show the effectiveness of residential fire sprinklers on fires resulting from thermal runaway of sit-on e-scooters.

In 2005, a line-of-duty death of an instructor at a firefighter training facility spawned research into both firefighter training and improving firefighter protective gear. Since the incident, there has been additional research into the material properties, firefighter facepiece performance, and the classification of firefighter exposures. This has been in parallel to significant improvements in the ability to model fires and predict, rather than prescribe, fire growth. As this recent body of work was not available at the time of incident investigation, the incident was revisited using the current version of Fire Dynamics Simulator. The full day of training evolutions was modeled in Fire Dynamics Simulator using recent data on wood pyrolysis (the fuel) and facepiece reaction to heat. Fire Dynamics Simulator results were evaluated against the testing done following the incident. Facepiece research was used to develop hole formation criteria that could be evaluated from Fire Dynamics Simulator predictions of facepiece exposure. This was used to compare the performance of facepieces contemporary with the incident to today’s facepieces. In addition, exposure predictions were evaluated in the context of exposure hazard categories developed for firefighter protective gear.

For more than a century, smoke explosions have been documented in the fire research literature. Yet even with this long history, smoke explosions have received very little attention in the fire research community. The few review articles on unexplained explosions (overpressure events) have adopted the conventional names of smoke explosions, backdraft, smoke gas explosions or rapid fire progression. Anecdotal evidence from firefighters have shown a number of overpressure events that cannot be explained as a gas leak or flammable liquids ignition. In this study, experiments were conducted in a plywood lined compartment with a timber crib as a sustained fire source and the ignition source. The compartment had a single vent that was open for the entire time. After an extended period of burning, the flames detached from the crib, traveled around the compartment, and finally self-extinguished. Sometime after the flames self-extinguished, the compartment erupted in flames culminating in a large horizontal flame projecting more than 2 m from the vent opening. In this study, a consistent cycle that leads to an overpressure event has been identified. A total of 29 overpressure events were created in 13 experiments with many experiments experiencing multiple overpressure events. Gas species, compartment temperatures, vent velocities, and compartment pressure were all recorded during the experiments. Conditions in the compartment immediately prior to the overpressure event are reported. Having demonstrated that an overpressure event within a combustible compartment can be reproduced, future research is recommended to better quantify the conditions leading to an overpressure event.

Firefighters’ or instructors’ exposure to airborne chemicals during live-fire training may depend on fuels being burned, fuel orientation and participants’ location within the structure. This study was designed to evaluate the impact of different control measures on exposure risk to combustion byproducts during fire dynamics training where fuel packages are mounted at or near the ceiling. These measures included substitution of training fuels (low density wood fiberboard, oriented strand board (OSB), pallets, particle board, plywood) and adoption of engineering controls such as changing the location of the instructor and students using the structure. Experiments were conducted for two different training durations: the typical six ventilation cycle (six-cycle) and a shorter three ventilation cycle (three-cycle) with a subset of training fuels. In Part A of this series, we characterized the fire dynamics within the structure, including the ability of each fuel to provide an environment that achieves the training objectives. Here, in Part B, airborne chemical concentrations are reported at the location where fire instructors would typically be operating. We hypothesized that utilizing a training fuel package with solid wood pallets would result in lower concentrations of airborne contaminants at the rear instructor location than wood-based sheet products containing additional resins and/or waxes. In the six-cycle experiments (at the rear instructor location), OSB-fueled fires produced the highest median concentrations of benzene and 1,3 butadiene, plywood-fueled fires produced the highest total polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) concentrations, particle board-fueled fires produced the highest methyl isocyanate concentrations, and pallet-fueled fires produced the highest hydrogen chloride concentrations. All fuels other than particle board produced similarly high levels of formaldehyde at the rear instructor location. The OSB fuel package created the most consistent fire dynamics over six-cycles, while fiberboard resulted in consistent fire dynamics only for the first three cycles. In the follow-on three-cycle experiment, PAH, benzene, and aldehyde concentrations were similar for the OSB and fiberboard-fueled fires. Air sampling did not identify any clear differences between training fires from burning solid wood pallets and those that incorporate wood-based sheet products for this commonly employed fuel arrangement with fuels mounted high in the compartment . However, it was found that exposure can be reduced by moving firefighters and instructors lower in the compartment and/or by moving the instructor in charge of ventilation from the rear of the structure (where highest concentrations were consistently measured) to an outside position.

There exists a variety of specialized fire dynamics routines, zone fire models, and field fire models. Many of these heuristics and correlations rely on experimental data from fires fueled by gas burners or liquid pool fires and have had minimal, if any, validation against data from fires with solid, more complex fuels, such as upholstered furniture. One hundred and twenty fire experiments were conducted inside a compartment that contained a single ventilation opening in the form of a doorway that was either open or closed for the entirety of each experiment. The fires were fueled by natural gas burners and upholstered furniture items. The compartment was instrumented throughout with thermocouples, oxygen sampling probes, heat flux gauges (total and radiative), pressure transducers, and bi-directional probes. Additionally, heat release rate data were collected during open door experiments with fires larger than 100 kW. This experimental series was designed to better quantify the repeatability of and differences between natural gas burner and upholstered furniture fuels and to provide new validation cases for the fire modeling community.

National Fire Protection Association standard 1403 provides the fire service with guidance for conducting effective live fire training with the goal of minimizing health and safety hazards. The document provides guidelines for materials to be included in the training fuel package, but the fire service has raised questions about the use of specific types of wood products for this purpose. In this study, the fire dynamics generated when utilizing five different Class A materials that have been historically employed as training fuels [low density wood fiberboard, oriented strand board (OSB), pallets, particle board, plywood] in a single compartment fire training structure (Fire Behavior Lab) were characterized. A specific focus was placed on understanding the thermal and visual environment created for firefighters located at typical locations for instructors (front and rear of structure) and students (middle of the structure). The pallet fuel package required the longest time to transition through the six ventilation cycles while the OSB fuel package was the quickest. Additionally, the most consistent fire dynamics were demonstrated with the OSB fuel followed by particle board and plywood, while fiberboard and pallets resulted in less repeatable flashover or rollover demonstration. The OSB fuel package resulted in the highest peak heat fluxes and pallets resulted in the lowest. The most severe exposures were measured at the front instructor location. To control thermal risks when conducting training in the Fire Behavior Lab structure, instructors and students should orient themselves as low as possible in the observation area and behind the interior baffle when possible. Considering the high radiant exposures for the front instructor location, providing a local shield and reducing the time in the training structure can also reduce risk for thermal injury or personal protective equipment damage. Overall, different fuels can impact thermal exposures to firefighters, but varying fuels also affects the consistency of the fire dynamics being presented to the firefighting students.

For the past several years, the NIJ Technology Working Group’s Operational Requirements for Fire and Arson Investigation have included several scientific research needs that require improved knowledge of properties of materials that are common in the built environment, and therefore likely to be involved in a fire scene. The specific areas of research include: adequate materials data inputs for accurate computer models, understanding the effect of materials properties on the development and interpretation of fire patterns, and evaluation of incident heat flux profiles to walls and neighboring items in support of fire model validation. Each of the three aforementioned research topics rely, in part, on accurate knowledge of the physical conditions of a material prior to the fire, how the material will respond to the exposure of heat, and how it will perform once it has ignited. The project described herein has made advancements in terms of collecting experimental data and property information on a multitude of materials commonly encountered in the built environment for the purpose of making the data publicly available and easily accessible to fire investigators, fire protection engineers, and fire researchers.

On September 3, 2018, two career Fire Lieutenants and two career Firefighters suffered burn injuries as a result of a residential structure fire. On September 10, 2018, personnel representing several other fire departments in the area, including a member of the Fire Safety Research Institute (FSRI) Advisory Board visited the fire scene to document the incident and collect material samples from the structure. The narrative and analysis presented in this report rely on the photographs and evidence collected on September 10, 2018, dispatch transcript [5] and videos recorded at the time of the incident, and interviews conducted by a local investigator between September 3, 2018 and September 7, 2018 with fire service personnel involved in the incident and the resident of the structure [6]. The LaGrange Fire Department invited FSRI to study this incident as part of FSRI’s Near-Miss Project which is supported by a DHS/FEMA Assistance to Firefighters Grant. The goal of this project is to enhance the safety and situational awareness of the fire service by applying fire dynamics research results to near-miss or line of duty injury fire incidents. By identifying factors that contributed to the incident, perhaps future incidents may be prevented. FSRI’s analysis of this incident will apply research results and utilize fire research tools, such as computer fire models, to examine key fire phenomena and tactical outcomes. This report will explain the incident, what occurred, why it occurred, and what can be done differently in the future to result in a more favorable outcome

Fire investigators may be occupationally exposed to many of the same compounds as the more widely studied fire suppression members of the fire service but are often tasked with working in a given exposure for longer periods ranging from hours to multiple days and may do so with limited personal protective equipment. In this study, we characterize the area air concentrations of contaminants during post-fire investigation of controlled residential fires with furnishings common to current bedroom, kitchen and living room fires in the United States. Area air sampling was conducted during different investigation phases including when investigations might be conducted immediately after fire suppression and extended out to 5 days after the fire. Airborne particulate over a wide range of dimensions, including sub-micron particles, were elevated to potentially unhealthy levels (based on air quality index) when averaged over a 60 min investigation period shortly after fire suppression with median PM2.5 levels over 100 mu g/m(3) (range 16-498 mu g/m(3)) and median peak transient concentrations of 1,090 mu g/m(3) (range 200-23,700 mu g/m(3)) during drywall removal or shoveling activities. Additionally, airborne aldehyde concentrations were elevated compared to volatile organic compounds with peak values of formaldehyde exceeding NIOSH ceiling limits during the earliest investigation periods (median 356 mu g/m(3), range: 140-775 mu g/m(3)) and occasionally 1 day post-fire when the structure was boarded up before subsequent investigation activities. These results highlight the need to protect investigators' airways from particulates when fire investigation activities are conducted as well as during post-fire reconstruction activities. Additionally, vapor protection from formaldehyde should be strongly considered at least through investigations occurring 3 days after the fire and personal formaldehyde air monitoring is recommended during investigations.

On February 9, 2022, Cobb County Fire and Emergency Services responded to a fire in a ground floor unit in a garden apartment building. At arrival, the fire was a post-flashover fire in a bedroom. Initial fire control was attempted by an interior fire attack team which was unable to quickly locate the fire. Exterior suppression through the bedroom window was started prior to discovery of the fire by the interior team. Shortly after fire discovery by the internal team, a mayday was called. Four firefighters from the interior fire attack team received first and second degree burns. This report analyzes photographic, video, and written documentation from the incident to evaluate the timeline of the incident and to assess the fire conditions present. Computer modeling using the Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS) was performed to provide further insight into the fire conditions and the impact of decisions and actions on the fire ground. Additionally, data from a full scale fire test of a similar fire in a similar structure was used to provide additional insight. Four FDS simulations were performed in support of the analysis. These included a simulation of the event as it unfolded and three simulations looking at the impact of alternate tactics which included: initial exterior attack prior to entry, the use of a smoke curtain to protect the building exit path, and interior only attack. FDS simulations provided insight on the heat present in the apartment during the fire and the impact of the interior and exterior suppression on conditions inside the apartment. Full scale test data of a similar fire showed similar behavior to the FDS predictions and gives credence to the FDS results. Results of the analysis suggest that injuries resulted from the length of time the interior attack team was present inside the apartment before actions were taken to reduce the severity of the fire. Six contributing factors were identified including size-up, communication and accountability, delayed exterior attack, lack of entry hall protection, the apartment layout and construction, thermal imager use, and mayday procedures and training. The last contributing factor was a positive contribution that helped avoid more serious injuries. Based on the contributing factors, five recommendations were made that include improved size-up, exterior fire control to prevent exterior spread, protection of exit pathways, basing fire ground tactics on known information, and recognizing when a change in tactics is needed.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the feasibility of a residential flashover prevention system with reduced water flow requirements relative to a residential sprinkler system designed to meet NFPA 13D requirements. The flashover prevention system would be designed for retrofit applications where water supplies are limited. In addition to examining the water spray’s impact on fire growth, this study utilized thermal tenability criteria as defined in UL 199, Standard for Automatic Sprinklers for Fire-Protection Service. The strategy investigated was to use full cone spray nozzles that would discharge water low in the fire room and directly onto burning surfaces of the contents in the room. Where as current sprinkler design discharges water in a manner that cools the hot gas layer, wets the walls and wets the surface of the contents in the fire room. A series of eight full-scale, compartment fire experiments with residential furnishings were conducted with low flow nozzles. While the 23 lpm (6 gpm) of water was the same between experiments, the discharge density or water flux around the area of ignition varied between 0.3 mm/min (0.008 gpm/ft2) and 1.8 mm/min (0.044 gpm/ft2). Three of the experiments prevented flashover. Five of the experiments resulted in the regrowth of the fire while the water was flowing. Regrowth of the fire led to untenable conditions, per UL 199 criteria, in the fire room. At approximately the same time as the untenability criteria were reached, the second sprinkler in the hallway activated. In a completed system, the activation of the second sprinkler would reduce the water flow to the fire room, which would potentially lead to flashover. The variations in the burning behavior of the sofa resulted in shielded fires which led to the loss of effectiveness of the reduced flow solid cone water sprays. As a result of these variations, a correlation between discharge density at the area of ignition and fire suppression performance could not be determined given the limited number of experiments. An additional experiment using an NFPA 13D sprinkler system, flowing 30 lpm (8 gpm), demonstrated more effective suppression than any of the experiments with a nozzle. The success of the sprinkler compared with the unreliable suppression performance of the lower flow nozzles supports the minimum discharge density requirements of 2 mm/min (0.05 gpm/ft2) from NFPA 13D. The low flow nozzle system tested in this study reliably delayed fire growth, but would not reliably prevent flashover.

The fire modeling community currently lacks full-scale data from tests conducted in realistic residential-style structures. Controlled gas burner tests were conducted in purpose-built single- and two-story structures instrumented throughout with thermocouples, pressure transducers, and bi-directional probes. Experiments consisted of sequences of ventilation events. The data collected in these tests was intended to provide several new validation cases for the fire modeling community.

On August 27 and 28, 2018, the American Burn Association, in conjunction with Underwriters Laboratories, convened a group of experts on burn and inhalation injury in Washington, DC. The goal of the meeting was to identify and discuss the existing knowledge, data, and modeling gaps related to understanding cutaneous thermal injury and inhalation injury due to exposure from a fire environment, and in addition, address two more areas proposed by the American Burn Association Research Committee that are critical to burn care but may have current translational research gaps (inflammatory response and hypermetabolic response). Representatives from the Underwriters Laboratories Firefighter Safety Research Institute and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Fire Research Laboratory presented the state of the science in their fields, highlighting areas that required further investigation and guidance from the burn community. Four areas were discussed by the full 24 participant group and in smaller groups: Basic and Translational Understanding of Inhalation Injury, Thermal Contact and Resulting Injury, Systemic Inflammatory Response and Resuscitation, and Hypermetabolic Response and Healing. A primary finding was the need for validating historic models to develop a set of reliable data on contact time and temperature and resulting injury. The working groups identified common areas of focus across each subtopic, including gaining an understanding of individual response to injury that would allow for precision medicine approaches. Predisposed phenotype in response to insult, the effects of age and sex, and the role of microbiomes could all be studied by employing multi-omic (systems biology) approaches.

There has been prior research exploring the exposure of common electrical cords and cables to fire, but that has traditionally been at the lab scale and under near steady-state exposures. The goal of these experiments was to expose six types of cords and cables in a room-scale compartment with a fuel load sufficient to drive the compartment through flashover. The basic test design was to expose the cords and cables on the floor of a compartment to a growing fire to determine the conditions under which the cord/cable would trip the circuit protection device. All of the cords were energized and installed on a non-combustible surface. The six cables and cords were protected by three different circuit protection devices which were remote from the thermal exposure. This configuration resulted in 18 exposures per experiment. The room fires experiments consisted of three replicate fires with two sofas as the main fuel source, two replicate fires with one sofa as the main fuel source and one fire with two sofas and vinyl-covered MDF paneling on three walls in the room. Each fuel package was sufficient to support flashover conditions in the room. The average peak heat release rate of the sofa fueled compartment fires with gypsum board ceiling and walls prior to suppression was 6.8 MW. The addition of vinyl covered MDF wall paneling on three of the compartment walls increased the pre-suppression peak heat release rate to 12 MW. In each experiment during post flashover exposure, the insulation on the cords and cables ignited and burned through, exposing bare wire. During this period, the circuits faulted. Assessments of both the thermal exposure and physical damage to the cords did not reveal any correlation between the thermal exposure, cord/cable damage, and trip type.

This study was designed to be an initial step to investigate the potential of low flow nozzles as part of a retrofit flashover prevention system in residential homes with limited water supplies. Not all homes have water supplies that can meet the needs of a residential sprinkler system. Current alter- natives, such as including a supplemental tank and pump, increase the cost of the system. These homes could benefit from an effective fire safety system with lower water supply requirements. The experiments in this study were conducted in a steel test structure which consisted of a fire room attached to a hallway in an L-shaped configuration. Three types of experiments were conducted to evaluate nozzles at different flow rates and under different fire conditions. The performance of the nozzles was compared to the performance of a commercially available residential sprinkler. The first set of experiments measured the distribution of the water spray from each of the nozzles and the sprinkler. The water spray measurements were made without the presence of a fire. The other two sets of experiments were fire experiments. The first set of fire experiments were designed to measure the ability of a water spray to cool a hot gas layer generated by a gas burner fire. The fire source was a propane burner which provided a steady and repeatable flow of heat into the test structure. Two water spray locations were examined, in the fire room and in the middle of the hallway. In each position, the burner was shielded from the water spray. The results showed that for equivalent conditions, the nozzle provided greater gas cooling than the sprinkler. The tests were conducted with a fire size of approximately 110 kW, and water flow rates in the range of 11 lpm (3 gpm) and 19 lpm (5 gpm). The second set of fire experiments used an upholstered sofa as the initial source of the fire with the water spray located in the same room. As a result of the compartment size and water spray distribution, the nozzle flowing water at 23 lpm (6 gpm) provided more effective suppression of the fire than the sprinkler flowing 34 lpm (9 gpm) did. The nozzle was similarly effective with the ignition location moved 1.0 m (3.2 ft) further away. However, the nozzle failed to suppress the fire with a reduced water flow rate of 11 lpm (3 gpm). The results of this limited study demonstrate the potential of low flow nozzles, directly flowing water on to the fuel surface, with the goal of preventing flashover. Additional research is needed to examine larger room sizes, fully furnished rooms, and shielded fires to determine the feasibility of a reduced water flow flashover prevention system.

The test scenarios ranged from fires in the structures with no exterior ventilation to room fires with flow paths that connected the fires with remote intake and exhaust vents. In the ranch, two replicate fires were conducted for each room of origin and each ventilation condition. Rooms of fire origin included the living room, bedroom, and kitchen. In the colonial, the focus was on varying the flow paths to examine the change in fire behavior and the resulting damage. No replicates were conducted in the colonial. After each fire scene was documented, the interior finish and furnishings were replaced in affected areas of the structure. Instrumentation was installed to measure gas temperature, gas pressure, and gas movement within the structures. In addition, oxygen sensors were installed to determine when a sufficient level of oxygen was available for flaming combustion. Standard video and firefighting IR cameras were also installed inside of the structures to capture information about the fire dynamics of the experiments. Video cameras were also positioned outside of the structures to monitor the flow of smoke, flames, and air at the exterior vents. Each of the fires were started from a small flaming source. The fires were allowed to develop until they self-extinguished due to a lack of oxygen or until the fire had transitioned through flashover. The times that fires burned post-flashover varied based on the damage occurring within the structure. The goal was have patterns remaining on the ceiling, walls, and floors post-test. In total, thirteen experiments were conducted in the ranch structure and eight experiments were conducted in the colonial structure. All experiments were conducted at UL's Large Fire Laboratory in Northbrook, IL. Increasing the ventilation available to the fire, in both the ranch and the colonial, resulted in additional burn time, additional fire growth, and a larger area of fire damage within the structures. These changes are consistent with fire dynamics based assessments and were repeatable. Fire patterns within the room of origin led to the area of origin when the ventilation of the structure was considered. Fire patterns generated pre-flashover, persisted post-flashover if the ventilation points were remote from the area of origin.

At the request of the Fire Department City of New York (FDNY), UL FSRI instrumented and documented a series of 12 thermal exposure hose experiments that were conducted in the burn compartment of an FDNY flashover simulator. The main objective of the experiments was to ob- serve the performance of fire hoses exposed to the heat flux from flaming hot gas layer conditions above the hose. FDNY collected a variety of hose types that represented a cross section of com- mercially available materials and construction methods. The thermal exposures generated in the burn compartment were measured. The fire experiments were stopped once the hose being exam- ined began to lose water through the wall of the hose. All of the hoses lost water through their wall, although the size of the holes and the amount of water leakage varied. While the burn compart- ment provided a “fire room environment” and different types of hose failures were demonstrated, the thermal exposure within the compartment was not demonstrated to be repeatable. Therefore it is not possible to develop a comparable rank or rating of the fire resistance of these hoses from this series of experiments.

A series of cooking fire experiments were conducted by the National Institute of Standards and Technology to examine the hazard associated with cooking oil fires. First, a series of 12 experiments were conducted on a free-standing stove situated in the open. The experiments were based on scenarios outlined in the draft UL 300A standard for fire suppression apparatus. Both the gas and electric ranges were tested. The amount of oil and types of cooking pans were varied in the experiments. Oil was heated on a cooktop burner until autoignition took place. Measurements of oil and pan temperatures, heat release rates, and heat fluxes were made to characterize the hazard of the ensuing fires. Next, two experiments were conducted using a full-scale residential kitchen arrangement to examine the hazard associated with the free-burning oil fires situated within a compartment equipped with commercial furnishings, fiberboard cabinets, and countertops. The dimensions of the test room were 3.6 m × 3.4 m × 2.4 m. Corn oil was heated on a cooktop burner until autoignition took place. Measurements of room temperature, heat fluxes, and heat release rates showed that even small cooktop fires spread and grew ultra-fast within the kitchen compartment.

In today's structure fires, evolving fire loads and higher heat release rates mean that fires grow larger and faster than ever before.Firefighting personal protective equipment (PPE) can be subjected to these severe thermal conditions repeatedly during firefighting operations.The self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) is a critical component of PPE that isolates the firefighter from hot and potentially toxic gases and particulate, present as byproducts of combustion.In recent years, changes in NFPA standards have resulted in the introduction of new SCBA facepiece designs and materials.However, the facepiece lens is still often considered the "weak-link" of the firefighting ensemble.SCBA facepiece lenses from two editions of the NFPA 1981 standard around which significant new tests were introduced were exposed to repeated thermal loads similar to those that could be encountered on a fireground (5 kW/m 2 for 5 minutes for 100 cycles, and 10 kW/m 2 for 1.5 minutes for 10 cycles).Samples from subsets of these SCBA were subjected to quasistatic tensile tests and dynamic impact testing and compared to samples from new, unexposed facepieces.Identical facepiece samples were subjected to the NFPA 1981 Lens Radiant Heat Test that was introduced in the 2013 version of the standard, which drove much of the change in facepiece design.Finally, facepiece lenses were tested for potential off-gassing that was proposed to be the result of polycarbonate decomposition from typical fireground thermal loads, due to the concern that these gasses could be inhaled by the firefighter wearing the SCBA facepiece.Statistically significant differences were found between facepieces certified to different versions of NFPA 1981.Those lenses certified to the 2013 edition had higher tensile strength and absorbed more energy but were more brittle than the 2007 edition materials.Exposure to repeated thermal loads resulted in changes to the tensile strength, strain to failure, maximal load, and energy absorbed, but the magnitude and direction of change was dependent on the thermal exposure and lens model.However, regardless of model and previous thermal exposure, all facepieces were able to maintain positive pressure after being exposed to the 5 minutes at 15 kW/m 2 that is included in the Lens Radiant Heat Test.Off-gas testing from the SCBA facepiece lenses showed no measurable polymers being released under typical and extreme fireground conditions using the GC-MS technique employed.Chemically dissolving the lens material confirmed that bisphenol A was a primary component of the polycarbonate along with important polymer chain terminators, and trace amounts of other polymers used in scratch resistant and thermal coatings.