7 The Science of Fire

Chapter 7 The Science of Fire Fire is an interesting thing. If you've ever passed your finger through a candle flame quickly, you know it doesn't hurt. But leave that finger in the flame for one short second, and it's a different story. Did you ever look deeply into a flame? The white part is hotter than the yellow part, and the yellow part is hotter than the red part. But the hottest part of a flame is the blue part. That's odd, because we think of blue as the color of cold and red as the color of heat. You need three things to create fire: oxygen, heat, and fuel. Combine them, and you get ignition. Take any one of them away, and the fire goes out. The science of fire is pretty simple,

火是一种有趣的东西。 如果你曾经用手指快速穿过蜡烛火焰，你就会知道它并不疼。 但把那根手指放在火焰里一秒钟，情况就不一样了。 你有没有深入观察过火焰？ 白色的部分比黄色的部分热，黄色的部分比红色的部分热。 但是火焰中最热的部分是蓝色的部分。 这很奇怪，因为我们认为蓝色是冷的颜色，红色是热的颜色。 生火需要三样东西：氧气、热量和燃料。 把它们结合起来，你就得到了点火。 拿走其中任何一个，火就会熄灭。 火的科学很简单，

really. When the average kid comes crashing through a locked door and lands face-first in a hallway filled with smoke and flames, he probably isn't going to spend a whole lot of time thinking about the science of fire. But Coke McDonald was not an average kid. "Avoid the blue flames!" Coke shouted as he landed on top of his sister, who, in turn, had landed on top of the shattered door. "Get off of me!" Pep shouted right back. The twins jumped off the hot floor and were faced with a nightmare scenario. There were flames and thick smoke in all directions. The sprinkler system in the hallway ceiling had turned on, but the spray of water was no match for the inferno raging around them. Coke and Pep grabbed hold of each other instinctively. There was nothing else to hold on to that wasn't on fire. A lot of paper—toilet paper, paper towels, art

真的。当一个普通的孩子撞进一扇锁着的门，脸朝下摔在充满烟雾和火焰的走廊上时，他可能不会花很多时间去思考火的科学。 但可口可乐·麦当劳并不是一个普通的孩子。 “避开蓝色的火焰！”科克喊道，他落在妹妹身上，而妹妹也落在破碎的门上。 “放开我！”佩普也喊道。 这对双胞胎从滚烫的地板上跳下来，面对的是一场噩梦。 四面八方都是火焰和浓烟。 走廊天花板上的自动喷水灭火系统已经打开，但喷出的水花无法抵挡他们周围熊熊燃烧的火焰。 可口可乐和佩普本能地抓住了对方。 没有别的东西可以抓住不着火的了。 有很多纸——卫生纸、纸巾、艺术品

supplies, napkins—was stored in the basement of the old school on the shelves next to the detention room. It had ignited fast. Tiny pieces of charred paper were swirling in the air around the frantic twins. But that wasn't all that was burning. There was a noxious, flammable substance that had been poured all over the floor. This fire had been set deliberately. Who would want to burn down a school? Don't answer that question. The sound of fire engines could be heard in the distance, but that didn't provide Coke or Pep with any comfort now. The heat was intense. Their eyes were tearing from the smoke, their throats choking to breathe. There was a nasty chemical smell filling the hall. That stuff alone could probably kill you if you inhaled enough of it. Pep tried to remember the lessons she'd learned when a firefighter came and spoke at the school a few years earlier. She recalled that he

补给品，餐巾纸，都存放在旧学校地下室的留校室旁边的架子上。 它燃烧得很快。烧焦的小纸片在这对疯狂的双胞胎周围飞舞。 但这并不是燃烧的全部。 一种有毒的可燃物质倒了一地。 这场火是有人故意放的。 谁会想烧毁一所学校？ 不要回答这个问题。 远处可以听到消防车的声音，但这并没有给可口可乐和佩普带来任何安慰。 天气很热。他们被烟熏得眼睛都要流泪了，他们的喉咙哽住了，无法呼吸。 大厅里充满了难闻的化学气味。 如果你吸入足够多的这种物质可能会杀死你。 佩普努力回忆起几年前一位消防员来学校演讲时所学到的教训。 她回忆起他

said something about "stop, drop, and roll," but that wouldn't help now. The floor was on fire. She wasn't about to roll around on it. Coke's photographic memory had on file just about everything he'd ever experienced, but he had never bothered to notice where the basement fire exits were located. Even if he knew where they were, those doors could very possibly be locked, or intentionally blocked. Coke pulled his T-shirt off over his head. "What, are you trying to be macho?" Pep yelled. "No, I'm trying to live!" he replied. He ripped the shirt in half, wrapping one piece around his mouth and nose and handing the other piece to his sister. She made a mask of her own. As Coke looked up to see if the ceiling was about to collapse on him, he realized that the bottom of his left pants leg was on fire. He used his other foot to snuff it out, kicking himself and hurting his ankle in the process. "Oww!" he yelled.

他说什么“停，掉，滚”但现在没用了。 地板着火了。她不打算在上面打滚。 可口可乐的过目不忘几乎记录了他所经历过的一切，但他从来没有费心去注意地下室的消防出口在哪里。 即使他知道他们在哪里，那些门也很可能是锁着的，或者是故意堵上的。 科克把他的t恤脱下来盖在头上。 “怎么，你想表现得有男子气概吗？”Pep喊道。 “不，我想活下去！”他回答。 他把衬衫撕成两半，一块裹在嘴巴和鼻子上，另一块递给妹妹。 她自己做了一个面具。 当科克抬头看天花板是否要塌下来压在他身上时，他意识到他的左裤腿底部着火了。 他用另一只脚把它掐灭，踢了自己一脚，伤了脚踝。 “哇！”

"I think I smell carbon monoxide," Pep shouted in his ear. "Carbon monoxide is odorless, Einstein!" was his reply. "Let's get out of here!" "Which way?" she hollered. "I can't see!" "Doesn't matter!" he shouted back. "You pick. You're the one who has feelings. Use 'em!" "It's too hot!" she shouted. Some burning debris fell off a shelf and almost hit her. "We can't stay here!" Coke told Pep. "We'll be burned alive! One way or another, we've gotta make a run for it!" "Right through the flames?" she asked. "Yeah," he replied, "like you're running your finger over a candle. If we move fast enough, we won't feel a thing." "That's crazy!" she said, and he knew she was right. But staying where they were would be crazy too. "Where's the fire extinguisher?" Coke yelled. "Maybe we can clear a path with it."

“我想我闻到了一氧化碳的味道，”佩普在他耳边喊道。 “一氧化碳是无味的，爱因斯坦！”他回答。 “我们离开这里吧！”“哪条路？”她喊道。 “我看不见！”“没关系！”他喊道。 “你的选择。你才是那个有感情的人。 使用他们!”“太热了！”她喊道。 一些燃烧的碎片从架子上掉下来，差点砸到她。 “我们不能呆在这里！”可口可乐告诉佩普。 “我们会被活活烧死的！不管怎样，我们必须逃出去！”“穿过火焰吗？”她问。 “是的，”他回答说，“就像你用手指在蜡烛上擦过一样。 如果我们动作足够快，就不会有任何感觉。” “这太疯狂了！”她说，他知道她是对的。 但呆在原地也太疯狂了。 “灭火器在哪里？”可口可乐喊道。 “也许我们可以用它开辟一条道路。”

They fumbled around on the floor until Pep got her hands on the fire extinguisher. "Oww!" she screamed. "It's too hot to touch!" Coke picked up a piece of the door they had broken and slapped at the flames with it. This worked to an extent, but the wood was heavy and quickly sapped his strength. "We're gonna die in here!" Pep screamed. That's when everything went dark. A large cloth had landed on top of them, and they couldn't see a thing. Then they felt hands pulling the edges of the cloth around them. It was damp. They felt themselves being lifted and carried somewhere by somebody. They couldn't get their arms free to struggle. They didn't want to struggle. They wanted to get out of the hallway, and that was what was happening. Somebody had hoisted them up and was carrying them away. The twins felt themselves being pushed through a set of double doors and then outside

他们在地板上摸索着，直到佩普拿到了灭火器。 “哇！”她尖叫起来。“太热了，不能碰！”科克捡起他们打碎的一块门板，用它拍打着火焰。 这招在一定程度上起了作用，但木头太重了，很快就耗尽了他的力气。 “我们会死在这里的！”Pep尖叫。 就在那时，一切都变暗了。 一块大布落在他们身上，他们什么也看不见。 然后他们感到有手在拉他们周围的布边。 天气很潮湿。他们感到有人把他们抬到某个地方去了。 他们无法腾出手来进行斗争。 他们不想挣扎。 他们想离开走廊，这就是当时发生的事情。 有人把它们抬起来带走了。 这对双胞胎感到自己被推过了一扇双层门，然后走了出去