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,

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

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

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.

"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."

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