BURNING MATTRESSES YIELD A SAFER NIGHT'S SLEEP FOR ALL.

Bedroom fires typically begin with the flaming ignition, not of the bed, but of the bed coverings. Fatalities occur after flashover, when all combustibles in a room burst into flames and the fire spreads rapidly.

NIST engineers have developed a technique for testing the threat to a mattress from burning bed coverings such as sheets, blankets and comforters. The testing advance completes the first phase of a program, supported by the Sleep Products Safety Council, aimed at reducing hazards associated with the open-flame ignition of residential mattresses. All mattresses sold in the United States since 1973 are already resistant to ignition by cigarettes.

To quantify the intensity of a fire that a mattress might experience, the researchers burned 12 different combinations of bed coverings. They developed a unique infrared imaging technique to follow the spread of flames and heat intensity on camera and used the NIST-devised technique of oxygen consumption calorimetry to measure the rate of heat release. With the results, they created a two-propane burner device that simulates the shape and intensity of a bed covering fire. This was used on four experimental mattress/boxspring designs with a variety of fire-retardant features to determine how well the burner-initiated fires mirrored real ones.

Further research is under way to ascertain what reduction of fire losses, in terms of reduced fatalities, injuries and property damage, can be expected from bed assemblies that achieve reduced rate of heat release. A major goal is to develop a standard test for manufacturers to measure the fire performance of different mattress/boxspring designs and component combinations in a bed covering-ignited fire.