Ability to escape fires declines after drinking

It appears alcohol doesn't mix well with fire.

That was the lasting lesson of a study conducted by the Maryland Fire and Rescue Institute yesterday to measure the effect of alcohol on the ability to leave an apartment during a fire. During the study, 10 student and non-student volunteers got progressively drunker and ended up taking a longer amount of time to flee an apartment than they had while sober.

There had been no research directly studying alcohol's effects on fire victims, said Andrew Pantelis, the vice president of the Prince George's County Professional Firefighters and Paramedics Association and the officer in charge of the study, despite the fact that about half of adult fire fatalities were under the influence of alcohol, according to the U.S. Fire Administration. The issue is critical to college students because there have been 129 campus fire fatalities nationwide since 1999, according to Campus Firewatch, a monthly electronic newsletter.

"We know that people aren't going to stop drinking ... but maybe after they've had five drinks, they'll think twice before lighting that paper towel on fire as a prank," Pantelis said.

Volunteers began each of the five trials in a bed in a mock apartment on the fourth floor of a training building at the Institute. With the fire alarm blaring, harmless smoke from a machine flooded into the hallway, creating a gray-black haze that participants said made it impossible to see their hands in front of their faces. Volunteers crawled to the stairway and walked down to the third floor, where the trial ended.

Students first left the apartment sober, taking about 30 to 35 seconds, Pantelis said. They then drank to raise their blood alcohol content, first to .03, then to .06, then to .09 and finally to .12.

As they drank cups of Budweiser, many volunteers said they thought their times would not be significantly affected by the alcohol.

"I'm not saying I would chug two beers when the building is on fire just to challenge myself," junior kinesiology major Jason Barth said.

Some even predicted a decrease in their time due to their familiarity with the course.

"I feel that I'm getting better and better," sophomore letters and sciences major Matt Murray said. "I really feel that I'm going faster and faster."

Despite their confidence, participants' times increased by about 10 seconds during the second trial and third trials, and spiked between the .06 and .09 BAC trials, Pantelis said. By the last trial, most times had increased by 100 to 150 percent over the sober trial, he added.

"I think [the experiment] went better than expected," Pantelis said. "Nobody got hurt. Everybody pretty much had a good time, and everybody learned a little bit about what the body can and can't do under the influence of alcohol."

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