A Toilet Could Save Your Life in a Fire
More Articles Related to HumorWhat would you do if trapped inside a burning building or high rise? I thought this was funny, in its own way, yet might just work in the right conditions...
More often than not in a building fire you will succumb to toxic smoke inhalation rather than the fire itself. Typical urban fires produce a great deal of toxic smoke that is very different from surviving a wilderness fire counterpart.
If you are trapped inside burning building experts recommend you try to seal yourself within a room by blocking off all areas that smoke may enter. For example, you may escape into a bathroom and use wet towels around the cracks of doors and windows to prevent toxic fumes from entering.
People are excellent at coming up with novel ideas on how to survive anything and fires are no exception. US Patent Number 4320756 is for a tool that can supply you with enough fresh air to survive should you be trapped in a room.
A good example of how survivors think outside the box
If the room you are in contains too much toxic smoke, simply insert the snorkel-like device down through the water trap of a drain such as a toilet. In this way you can tap into the vent pipe where there is a fresh air supply available. Of course there may very well be some sewer gas but it is far better than the unbreathable toxic air in the room.
The idea seems plausible. What I especially like about this toilet survival snorkel device is that it taps into a method that is obvious once you see it. Thinking outside the box in this way is actually very difficult to do and most of us not having known about it would not have come up with this idea even in a life threatening situation.
This interesting survival idea may work without the patented device. You could try a variety of other tubing that is at hand. Vacuum cleaner hoses or any other flexible tubing could possibly be shoved down through the water trap and into a breathable air supply that allows you to survive while waiting for help.
Lacking suitable hose you may be able to break the connection where the water trap meets the pipe and obtain the air directly.
You need to be very careful when attempting to breath air from the water conduit. Not all are vented to the outdoors so you may end up inhaling a lung full of pure sewer gas which may dispatch you faster than the toxic fumes of the fire. So don’t try this at home and use only in a dire emergency where life is at stake.
Keizer, OR
Who would ever have thought of it? Nice idea after you get past the thought of it!
Ozark Mountains
This may help you suffer longer before the fires consumes you. First thing you do is get out. Problem with breathing thru a long tube is when you exhale you fill the tube with CO2. So when you inhale a high percentage will be Carbon Dioxide. Eventually your going to have a problem. If you exhale into the room after each breath, you can eliminate the C02 problem.
U.S.
i work for a small city in the sewer department if you try this beware you might die anyway. the only way i see that working is to use a hard pipe which will not make the truns in the toilet. a flexable hose if that made the truns in the toilet would more than likely keep going down in to the sewer lineor the septic tank. Most common gases include hydrogen sulfide (H2S), ammonia (NH3), methane (CH4), and carbon dioxide (CO2). Sewer gas also contains carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrous oxides (NOx), biological organisms and water vapor. The major adverse health effects from exposure to sewer gasses include 1. Poisoning from hydrogen sulfide gas; 2. Fatigue do to reduced oxygen levels (from CO2 and CH4); 3. Diseases from airborne pathogens, bacteria, viruses etc; 4. Explosions from methane gas. And all this from something you do not physically come in contact with.
Charlotte, NC
Jeez, I hope the force is with me and I never have to use this technique. Talk about a fate worse than death?
Temporarily Ohio
If you can cover the bowl with a pillow or rigid plastic, and then move said objects in an up and down motion, without breaking the airseal; you can force the water back into the sewer, thereby eliminating the need for a hose to breath through. Who says you can't learn anything in jail!
You are welcome to share this Survival Topic with others. I only request that you use a short blurb (not the entire survival content) and this code to
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UK
If the toilet is of an older style you could breath through the over flow (in the cistern on top.) It is usually piped directly outside, thus giving pure air to breath.