How Do Doors Keep Fire from Spreading?
In FTL, higher levels of the door subsystem provides three purposes (in addition to interacting with an event or two):
- Higher levels of the door subsystem give more durability to the subsystem, making it harder to destroy (which causes you to lose control over your doors.)
- Higher levels of the door subsystem make doors require more melee attacks to force open by intruders; level one doors require no such force.
- Higher levels of the door subsystem slow the spread of fire from one room to another, when there is a shut door(s) connecting them.
This question is about that third point. Specifically:
- How quickly does fire spread from a room filled with fire to another if there is a level one door between these rooms?
- How about a level two/three/four door? (Level four doors are attainable in the Advanced Edition with someone manning a level 3 door subsystem.)
- Does it matter how large the room is that is on fire?
Best Answer
Level 2+ doors prevent fire from spreading in MOST cases. Otherwise; every (x) seconds, fire performs a check to see if it can spread. This check goes something like:
- Is there an open space nearby?
- No: Do nothing;
- Yes: Is there a level 2+ door between me and this space?
- No: Spread to space;
- Yes: Can I more easily spread to a different space?
- No: 1/100(approx) chance to spread through door;
- Yes: Spread to new space.
Fires will continue to spread until either; they run out of oxygen, or they are extinguished. With level 2 Blast Doors, most fires will burn themselves out, or be held off long enough for the player to air-lock them. Increasing the level of the doors will likely further increase effectiveness. Unlike actual fire, the fires in FTL do not run out of combustible material, meaning they can burn forever if left unattended.
Because of this, a smaller room is more 'at risk' of having a fire leave the room, because there are fewer spaces for the fire to occupy within in the room. However, since Oxygen is measured in units per space, this means the smaller room can run out of burnable oxygen sooner. Say each space has 100 units of air, burning 5 units per second with 2 unit-per-second recovery (O² subsystem), then with both squares on fire in a 2-square room, the fire would burn out in 33.33_ (rounded down) seconds.
Fires are most easily extinguished by opening a nearby airlock and draining all of the Oxygen from the room, but this can be hazardous if your Oxygen subsystem is damaged or destroyed in this time, or if they door Subsystem is destroyed, preventing you from closing the airlock.
Pictures about "How Do Doors Keep Fire from Spreading?"
Why should doors be closed in a fire?
Closing doors can cut off the pump, slowly starving a fire of much of that fuel. It can also provide one of the most effective barriers to temporarily inhibit the spread of flames and smoke, giving firefighters crucial time to respond.What prevents a fire from spreading?
Closing doors to prevent the spread of fire One of the most effective measures to prevent fire from spreading through a building and to reduce smoke damage is to ensure that all internal doors are kept shut, particularly out of school hours.Can fire go through doors?
Though they may end up eventually catching fire themselves, even wooden doors can act as effective short-term barriers against flames and oxygen flow.Why is it important to keep doors and windows closed during fire?
A closed door also helps limit oxygen flow, which may help prevent a fire from growing. When escaping a burning structure, closing the door behind you can help limit property damage.See the Dramatic Difference a Door Can Make
Sources: Stack Exchange - This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Exchange and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Images: Vilnis Husko, Darya Sannikova, Mathias Reding, Julia Filirovska