[PaulHoule]

According to Civil Defense documents, construction post-1945 was considered to be more vulnerable to the thermal and shock effects of nuclear weapons than pre-1945 construction.

Plastic materials were a villain. A black polyurethane couch could catch the rays of a H-Bomb fireball 100 kilometers array and within 15 seconds create a fireball in the room. Details like that create a lot of uncertainty about causalities.

Closer to home your Fire Marshall could demonstrate for you why you should not smoke in bed or what happens to a car when you light the passenger seat with a Zippo.

Common natural materials have safety properties against fire. For instance, if I got too close to a fire, a wool sweater would form a char, "ablating" like the Apollo spacecraft heat shield. An acrylic sweater would melt and probably transfer more heat to my skin and make it more likely that I get burned, if it doesn't ignite itself.

[xxpor]

There's a reason polystyrene is used as the waveguide between the two stages in a thermonuclear bomb :\