• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.61-67
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• 2002

The toxic gases released from a fire can be classified as asphyxiants such as carbon monoxide, and irritants such as hydrochloric acid, etc. It is recognized that the combustion characteristic of interior upholstery is one of the important factors to determine the severity of indoor fires. In this study, several of the mostly used interior upholsteries including wallpaper, veneer board, curtain and floor cover, were selected to be evaluated by using the method of NES 713. The toxicity indices of the experimental samples, which indicate their toxic potentials in a fire were lowered in the order of Wallpaper (Flame Retardant) 8.5>Floor Cover(Hard) 4.8>polyurethane 4.3>Floor Cover(Soft) 3.5>PVC 2.8> Veneer Board 2.3> Floor Cover(flame retardant) 2.1>Wallpaper(Promulgation) 1.4>Curtain 0.9. It is concluded that, among all the tested upholsteries, wallpaper (flame retardant) would release the largest quantity of Toxic gases in a fire.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.36-43
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• 2001

Several types of widely used interior upholsteries including wallpaper, veneer board and floor cover, were selected to be evaluated by using the method of NES 713 text. Test results indicates that a fire with retardant wallpaper release a large amount of toxic gases when constantly exposed to a fire source. When evaluated in terms of the masses of released gases, the release of Carbon monoxide appears the highest in case of wallpaper fire, while the ratio of CO/Mass loss appears the highest in case of floor cover fire. Therefore, it can be concluded that, a large amount of toxic gas will release from a floor cover fire with even a small quantity of fuel.