On a New York island, firefighters set homes ablaze

 In one on Tuesday, a match was lit near newspaper in the basement of a fully-furnished home. Within five minutes thick black smoke began to billow from the rear door; before ten minutes had passed, dark red flames licked around the basement windows. Firefighters gradually broke open the windows to change air flow, seeing how the flames reacted to different ventilation. Under real-life circumstances, air is added as soon as possible from immediately opening roofs, windows and doors. “They are bringing the lab out to the firefighters,” said Dan Madryzkowsky, a fire protection engineer from the National Institute of Standards and Technology.