Fire Safety Science Digital Archive

In the one-in-four sample of reports of fires attended by Fire Brigades the United Kingdom during 1955 there were 184 incidents in which carpets or rugs were believed to be the materials ignited first. Eighty two (50 per cent) of the incidents in which the carpet or rug was in normal use were caused by embers and sparks from domestic fires and a further 25 per cent by soot falling from chimneys. Thirty per cent of the incidents did not spread beyond the carpet, 42 per cent spread through the carpet, and 28 per cent of the incidents involved objects on or near the surface of the carpet.