[GSBN] Straw Bale House Fire [and CO2]

[Bill Christensen]

At 1:47 PM -0400 4/4/09, RT wrote:
>And once that has been done, the smouldering should self-extinguish 
>and the fire will have served the beneficial purpose of 
>identifying/remedying sloppy air barrier detailing and treating the 
>straw to make it resistant to microbial attack ?

I see a few flaws in your logic (or was that just a troll?)

There's probably plenty of oxygen available in the surrounding 
strawbales to sustain a slow smoldering fire for a fairly long time - 
evidenced in part by the two long smoldering bale wall stories 
earlier.  Just think about all those spaces in and around each of 
those straws...

And you should know as well as anyone that even the very best 
construction won't be perfect, especially over time - it'll shift and 
move, crack and leak, even if just a tiny amount.  Then you've got 
plaster permeability to consider - if H20 vapor can migrate through, 
why wouldn't O2 stand a fair chance?

And what's left if/when the fire finally *does* smother itself? 
Voids.  Probably some pretty sizeable ones, which won't be doing you 
a whole lot of insulating good - which is one of the major arguments 
FOR straw bale construction, right?


-- 
Bill Christensen
billc at greenbuilder.com

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