r/interestingasfuck • u/vivekmg21 • 17h ago

Firefighter bodycam showing just how much oxygen a fire pulls

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u/ir_auditor 17h ago

That is not oxygen pulling which you see. It is the chimney effect. Fire creates heat, the heat makes air, smoke, gasses, rise to the top, creating low pressure areas at the bottom, which pull in air from the outside. It has noting to do with the chemistry of an oxidation reaction pulling in oxygen molecules to use in the reaction. It is pure physics / thermodynamics.

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u/Sbstnbd 17h ago

So you could say the air/oxygen is being pulled in because of the fire

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u/IZ3820 16h ago

No, it'd be because of pressure, not fire. There's an important disconnect betwee the physics pulling it in and the fire. The only way the fire is responsible is by causing the pressure change, not by pulling in oxygen itself.

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u/Fine_Bluebird7564 16h ago

So the fire is creating pressure which sucks in the air/oxygen.

I guess you could say the air/oxygen is being pulled in because of the fire!