So what else is wrong with this sad plot? Actually, very little was right, but there's simply not enough time to cover it all. Nearly every fire-related comment in this show was inaccurate in one way or another. Although 'flashover' is mentioned several times (it's clear that the scriptwriter had confused a 'flashover' with a 'backdraft' - another fire event entirely), various shots of the shadowy bedroom showed that a flashover did not occur. A 'V' shaped pattern against a wall and a breach through the ceiling is the only burn damage shown other than the heater and the mysteriously charred upper doorframe. No other walls are scorched, and the bed mattress has a few burn marks which show up in one scene but not in another. As mentioned previously, every exposed combustible item in a room is burning during a flashover. How difficult could it have been to actually burn a mattress and a few other props before placing them on the set? And why did this couple have a
large space heater running in the bedroom when the upscale suburban house they lived in
undoubtedly had a heating unit built in? And not to be nitpicking (too late!), but
closets don't come equipped with wall outlets. Not only that - if the heater
really was 'high-voltage' it would have had a differently shaped cord plug (like
what you'd find on a clothes dryer cord) which The insulation on the wires
Grissom was so carefully examining in an on-camera close-up was burned away only in one
small localized area, which is not unusual, and was pretty conclusive evidence that the
wires hadn't been 'overloaded' with excessive current. At least one of the wires should
have been bared of insulation its entire length, since the insulation would have melted
off of any conductors What happened, electrically, appeared to be a fault (with electrical arcing - not an 'overload') in the duplex wall outlet (which, by the way, occurred in the lower socket, and NOT the upper one where the heater was shown to be plugged in during a flashback!). That electrical fault could have been caused by the kerosene-fueled fire, another crucial point overlooked by Grissom. |
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