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Upholstered Furniture Fires
Upholstered furniture plays a critical and often disproportionate role in structure fires, serving as the first item ignited in many fatal residential blazes. Fires starting in upholstered furniture, particularly those ignited by errant smoking materials, pose a significant threat to life because the materials often ignite slowly but produce large amounts of toxic smoke and rapid fire growth. Consequently, research has focused heavily on the effectiveness of safety measures, such as the use of less-fire-prone (Fire Standard Compliant) cigarettes and the ability to accurately track these incidents within reporting systems like the National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS), to better understand and mitigate this major source of fire death and injury.
- Cigarette Fires Involving Upholstered Furniture in Residences: The Role that Smokers, Smoker Behavior, and Less-Fire Prone Cigarettes Play
- Butry, D. T., & Thomas, D. S. (2017). Cigarette fires involving upholstered furniture in residences: The role that smokers, smoker behavior, and fire standard compliant cigarettes play. Fire Technology, 53(3), 1123–1146. Link: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10694-016-0621-3
- Identifying Residential Fires Involving Upholstered Furniture within the National Fire Incident Reporting System
- Thomas, D. S., & Butry, D. T. (2016). Identifying residential fires involving upholstered furniture within the National Fire Incident Reporting System. (NIST Technical Note 1845). National Institute of Standards and Technology. http://dx.doi.org/10.6028/NIST.TN.1845