WEBVTT Kind: captions Language: en 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.950 - Behind me is the Saint Lawrence Seaway, 2 00:00:01.950 --> 00:00:05.170 one of the largest public works projects in North America's history. 3 00:00:05.170 --> 00:00:08.780 The seaway was a 1950s expansion of small canals and waterways 4 00:00:08.780 --> 00:00:13.160 into a huge, navigable path for shipping between the Atlantic and the Great Lakes, 5 00:00:13.170 --> 00:00:15.990 along with massive hydroelectric power plants. 6 00:00:15.990 --> 00:00:17.700 That expansion came at a cost, though. 7 00:00:17.700 --> 00:00:19.636 The water is high today, but when it's low 8 00:00:19.636 --> 00:00:22.770 you can still see the foundations of Aultsville, Ontario, 9 00:00:22.770 --> 00:00:26.460 one of the lost villages that were flooded to make way for progress. 10 00:00:26.460 --> 00:00:28.130 The residents were told that they had to move 11 00:00:28.130 --> 00:00:29.860 and see their old town demolished 12 00:00:29.860 --> 00:00:33.110 and then drowned beneath new, higher water. 13 00:00:33.110 --> 00:00:36.370 They didn't really have any choice in the matter. 14 00:00:36.370 --> 00:00:39.560 And then some scientists came along and said: 15 00:00:39.560 --> 00:00:42.920 if these homes are going to be demolished and then flooded anyway, 16 00:00:42.920 --> 00:00:45.460 can we set them on fire first? 17 00:00:45.470 --> 00:00:47.130 - The St. Lawrence Burns was a project 18 00:00:47.130 --> 00:00:50.130 where they were trying to study how fires develop in buildings, 19 00:00:50.130 --> 00:00:53.190 specifically how it affects the survival of the occupants, 20 00:00:53.190 --> 00:00:56.480 as well as how fire spreads from one building to another. 21 00:00:56.480 --> 00:00:59.090 The researchers were scientists from the Building Research Division 22 00:00:59.090 --> 00:01:02.060 of the National Research Council of Canada. 23 00:01:02.060 --> 00:01:04.170 They burned a total of eight buildings, 24 00:01:04.170 --> 00:01:07.410 including six single-family dwelling homes, 25 00:01:07.410 --> 00:01:10.380 one two-story school, and one community hall. 26 00:01:10.380 --> 00:01:13.700 This was a rare opportunity, because up until this point 27 00:01:13.700 --> 00:01:16.450 most of the research that was done on fires 28 00:01:16.450 --> 00:01:19.700 were either from the aftermaths of real fires 29 00:01:19.700 --> 00:01:22.560 or they did it on small-scale lab tests. 30 00:01:22.560 --> 00:01:25.550 This, the St. Lawrence Burns, was really the first time 31 00:01:25.550 --> 00:01:29.260 that scientists were able to conduct in-field, full-scale research 32 00:01:29.260 --> 00:01:31.540 where they had control over the parameters 33 00:01:31.540 --> 00:01:35.140 as well as being able to observe the fire from beginning to end. 34 00:01:35.140 --> 00:01:38.140 - There's a fair argument that, if the buildings were going to be destroyed anyway, 35 00:01:38.140 --> 00:01:41.250 why not take the opportunity to get useful data from them? 36 00:01:41.250 --> 00:01:45.330 Whether it's by fire or by water, the result was going to be the same. 37 00:01:45.330 --> 00:01:48.260 But it's also tough to ignore the human element. 38 00:01:48.260 --> 00:01:50.870 Homes that had been in families for generations, 39 00:01:50.870 --> 00:01:53.030 the local school, the community hall, 40 00:01:53.030 --> 00:01:55.830 all given a sort of insult to injury 41 00:01:55.830 --> 00:01:58.900 by folks coming in from outside for science. 42 00:01:58.900 --> 00:02:01.210 Many people weren't even told about the burns. 43 00:02:01.210 --> 00:02:02.720 Others chose not to watch. 44 00:02:02.720 --> 00:02:05.100 The volunteer fire chief said in an interview years later 45 00:02:05.100 --> 00:02:07.283 that watching the flames was "devastating". 46 00:02:08.210 --> 00:02:10.910 But the results were probably worth it. 47 00:02:10.910 --> 00:02:14.080 - They got a lot of different data, including things like 48 00:02:14.080 --> 00:02:20.010 carbon monoxide concentration, smoke density, rise of temperature, oxygen levels. 49 00:02:20.010 --> 00:02:22.610 They mounted a microphone in the bedroom. 50 00:02:22.610 --> 00:02:25.160 They found out that the noise levels produced by a fire 51 00:02:25.160 --> 00:02:30.100 was not enough to wake a sleeping occupant when the bedroom door is closed. 52 00:02:30.100 --> 00:02:33.260 The assumption prior to the studies was that convection 53 00:02:33.260 --> 00:02:35.410 was the biggest cause of fire spread. 54 00:02:35.410 --> 00:02:37.620 But then it turns out it was actually radiant heat 55 00:02:37.620 --> 00:02:39.350 that was more likely the culprit. 56 00:02:39.350 --> 00:02:44.650 A combustible wood frame house could lead to another house 40 feet away to ignite. 57 00:02:44.650 --> 00:02:48.270 And even in a non-combustible building, it could cause 58 00:02:48.270 --> 00:02:51.140 another house about 32 feet away to ignite. 59 00:02:51.140 --> 00:02:54.600 The St. Lawrence Burns helped change the national building code of Canada, 60 00:02:54.600 --> 00:02:56.397 and it saved lives. 61 00:02:56.397 --> 00:02:58.750 - Aultsville has almost passed out of living memory today. 62 00:02:58.750 --> 00:03:01.490 On aerial photos you can still see ghosts of old roads, 63 00:03:01.490 --> 00:03:04.310 structures that haven't been worn away by the water yet. 64 00:03:04.310 --> 00:03:06.480 But you could see there's a little bit of Aultsville 65 00:03:06.480 --> 00:03:09.900 in every modern home, in everything that's been built 66 00:03:09.900 --> 00:03:12.930 in the developed world from the 1960s onwards, 67 00:03:12.930 --> 00:03:16.230 because the results from the St. Lawrence Burns here 68 00:03:16.230 --> 00:03:19.450 really did change the way that everything was built. 69 00:03:19.450 --> 00:03:21.650 Thank you very much to Betty Chen from Articulations. 70 00:03:21.650 --> 00:03:24.050 - Where I do videos about art and design. 71 00:03:24.050 --> 00:03:27.650 - You'll want to go and check out her video about the ISO-standard exit sign. 72 00:03:27.650 --> 00:03:29.580 It's not all science and infrastructure like here, 73 00:03:29.580 --> 00:03:31.630 but it is a great little channel. 74 00:03:31.630 --> 00:03:32.887 Little? 75 00:03:32.887 --> 00:03:35.060 - Yeah, that's fine. It's pretty little!