Donan Fires Up Clients With Louisville Burn Demo

On November 10, 2011, professional fire experts torched two rooms of furniture, a kitchen,  three vehicles, and a dryer demonstration, outside of Louisville, Kentucky — and they brought an avid audience to observe their handiwork. Donan Engineering forensic fire investigators; the Middletown, Kentucky, Fire Protection District; and the Louisville franchise of Paul Davis Restoration (a property damage mitigation, reconstruction, and remodeling company) invited a group of clients to a dramatic demonstration of how certain types of fires start, spread, and can be extinguished.

One purpose of the demonstration was to illustrate the “flashover” effect: the transition phase in the development of a compartment fire in which surfaces (of furniture, for example) exposed to thermal radiation reach ignition temperature more or less simultaneously. As a result, an entire room can burst into flame.

Donan’s professionals also simulated a cooking oil fire on an electric range and set three vehicles ablaze to demonstrate the progress of a vehicle fire from the incipient stage through extinguishment. Click here to see the videos!

Click here to see video and pictures, from the live burn last year, on December 1, 2010!