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When I look at houses, all I see is concrete and cement blocks, nothing seems flammable, yet house still burn, why?

Fred
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user29722
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  • Depends on the region as to what predominant building materials are, but essentially there will be combustible materials in there somewhere. Most building codes will enforce fire resistance material or fire delaying assemblies. After X number of hours fire delaying assemblies can be breached and the combustible materials behind them will burn. Also some materials may become combustible at higher temperatures. Also interior furnishings, books, cooking supplies provide plenty of combustible material as well. – Forward Ed Dec 05 '21 at 21:54
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    Isn't this kind of the same as asking why a fire pits burns when all you can see is a ring of non-combustible stone at a distance? – DKNguyen Dec 05 '21 at 23:16
  • Look at a burnt out house. The concrete and blocks will still be there. Everything else was combustible. – Transistor Dec 06 '21 at 09:31
  • Hard to make roofs / ceilings out of concrete. – StainlessSteelRat Dec 06 '21 at 20:43

2 Answers2

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Think of all the flammable objects inside and remember that some houses have internal wooden floors.

Solar Mike
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  • You should also include wooden frames, skirting boards, window frames, doors & door frames. – Fred Dec 05 '21 at 22:12
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    I think the "flammable objects" covered all flammable materials adequately. Concrete and cement blocks, while inflammable, theirs strength reduce considerably under the extensive heat and long duration of subjecting to such high heat, – r13 Dec 05 '21 at 22:30
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    @r13 Caution: "inflammable" is not the opposite of "flammable". – Daniel Hatton Dec 06 '21 at 12:39
  • @DanielHatton And yet unflammable is not a word. It's preposterous. I had to say non-combustible in my comment above because of that. – DKNguyen Dec 06 '21 at 16:45
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A house even if built with concrete can act like a fuornace. Fournaces are non-combustible, but if you drop some logs in them they burn very hot and can then heat up and scorch even concrete and soften the rebars or steel columns and beams causing the ceilings to fall down like pancake, same as the New York world trade center 9/11.

kamran
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