Triage Of Fire Smoke Intoxicated Victims In A Disaster Situation

Fire and disasters are often linked together. The smoke inhalation is one of the important pathologies found in fires and that could be lethal, lead to serious sequels or it could be of no importance, as well. In a disaster situation, the number of intoxicated victims could be large and their triage is of importance to select those who can benefit of treatment. We focus our attention on smoke inhalation cases, clinical presentation and importance of diagnostics even in a disaster situation. Measurement of breath carbon monoxide in the pre-hospital setting is interesting to diagnose poisoning and to help to find real smoke inhalation victims in a crowd of involved and stressed people.