Reply #19: Smoke color can't tell you that. [View All]

I don't know who posted it, but they were full of it. The color and amount of smoke cannot tell you whether a fire is little or big, or whether it's going out. It can only tell you WHAT is burning. Grey smoke indicates cellulostic material (i.e. wood, paper, walls, etc.). Black smoke indicates petroleum in some form, such as gasoline or jet fuel, but also plastics and lots of modern furniture. Brown indicates old, dried wood. If you see a nearby fire giving off smoke of some other odd color, RUN, because it's probably a nasty chemical burning. Some small fires give off a lot of smoke, and some large fires hardly give off any at all. It depends on the fuel, how dry the fuel is, the amount of oxygen getting to the fire, and even the weather conditions when its burning.

One important thing to remember is that almost ALL fires burn black, at least initially, nowadays. We use plastics and petroleum products in just about everything, and plastics nearly always release large volumes of black smoke. Since this is a newer building it's probably safe to assume that it has plastic based carpets, plastic pipes in the walls, plastic-based wallpapers, plastic impregnated vapor barriers in the exterior construction, plastic based furniture (foams and artificial fill material), etc. It probably even has latex paint on the walls (which is made with black smoke producing rubber). Like nearly all newer buildings, this thing is going to burn black.