On the way back from a drive to Nevada to pick up a dog I listened to an episode of the Stuff You Should Know podcast about the history of hotel fires and related building codes. One of the common threads among the deadliest incidents was people trying to create additional airflow throughout the building that ended up providing extra oxygen for the flames that developed later on. Propping open fire doors (!) was a big one, as was modifying elevator shafts such that they essentially became chimneys. A big motivation for this was the fact that everyone and their grandmother was smoking in the early to mid twentieth century, which meant that you had 2/3rds of the fire triangle all set up and ready to go.
After the episode was over, I remembered @theunitofcaring and @slatestarscratchpad ‘s posts about poor air circulation leading to excessively high CO2 levels, and now I’m wondering if that isn’t a direct consequence of architectural changes made with the express purpose of restricting airflow to reduce the risk of fire.
