#smoke-control

2 articles.

A dark modern living room at night where a small flame burns on a sofa cushion, spreading outward in a glowing ring of fire across the fabric while thin smoke gathers under the ceiling and a wall clock hangs in the shadows — the first seconds of fire growth.

Fire Fundamentals

The t-Squared Fire: How Fire Growth Rate Shapes Escape Time

Slow, medium, fast, ultrafast: how the t-squared curve turns fire growth into numbers, and why modern fuels outrun its four classes.

July 21, 2026 · 14 min read

Wide cinematic cutaway photograph of a tall office tower at night under a deep-blue winter sky with snow blowing past lit windows; inside, a single illuminated emergency stairwell runs the full height of the building like a glowing vertical spine, with faint pale arrows of rising air suggesting stack effect drawing upward through the shaft — calm, architectural documentary framing that shows why a stairwell pressurization system behaves so differently on the coldest night of the year

Fire Safety Engineering

Stack Effect: Why Stairwell Pressurization Fails in Winter

On the coldest night of the year, stack effect can reverse a stairwell pressurization system and pull smoke into the stairs occupants flee through.

May 29, 2026 · 15 min read