Blaze (Black Box) - Hardcover

Faith, Nicholas

3.61

44 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0752217399 ISBN 13: 9780752217390

Publisher: Channel 4 Books, 1999

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This volume is not just the story of some of the most dreadful fires of modern times, it also follows the story once the fire has been put out - the work of investigators who piece together the cause of the ignition, the mechanism by which the fire spread, and even the occupant's behaviour. Their work leads to discoveries that form the basis of legislation, making buildings safer places. The text features fire-fighters, fire-service investigators, fire-safety engineers and forensic fire-scientists.

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Review:

Fires start, or are started, and the evidence of how it happened, and how it spread, is likely to burn with the rest of the building. Yet if fires are to be prevented and if arsonists are to be caught, techniques have to be found to sift through the ashes for that evidence. Nicholas Faith's book, based on the Channel Four series, takes us through those techniques and introduces us to the forensic experts who apply them. We learn how computer modelling has made it possible to understand the apparent paradoxes of fire--why sudden flares will trap and kill one person and not the person in the next room. There is a folk myth that people panic and trample each other-- Faith explains the extent to which this is mere mythology and how well most people have behaved in the direst of emergencies. He takes us in detail through some of the fires of modern times--Kings Cross, Our Lady of Angels--and the lessons learned from them. And we learn about the people who take the most terrible of risks to save others from fire as well as the awful drives which lead some people, including renegade fire fighters, to kill people in this most awful of ways. --Roz Kaveney

About the Author:

Nicholas Faith is a journalist and a writer for British television. He has written on topics as diverse as cognac, Bordeaux, Swiss banks, trains, trucks, ships, disasters, and forensic science. He has served as Industrial Editor of the Sunday Times and Assistant Editor of The Economist. He lives in London.

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