I am writing a somewhat morbid story about several people who are trapped in a building by a fire, and they have no way out (they’re in a dead-end tunnel), so they opt to remove the damp cloths that are covering their faces, and instead inhale as much smoke as possible so as to lose consciousness before the flames reach them. They’ll die, still, but at least they’ll die less painfully.
Now is this a plausible way to die a better death, or does the smoke inhalation just take way too long? And even before the flames reach you, how hot would the ambient air get?
(They are not in the upper floors of the building - since heat goes up, they’d cook - but rather, in the basement, which would be cooler…?)
You can still lose enough consciousness from it from lack of adequate air, but still be alive enough to feel yourself cooking. It is my understanding that the ambient heat can get enough to start cooking you as well. If you are going to die anyway, a fall is probably better than in a fire. Grab those bed sheets and rappel to the next floor or the ground, if anything you increase your odds if you do it right.
There is no right answer as there are too many variables. But, yes it could possibly work.
Carbon monoxide produced by a fire could render a relatively painless unconsciousness prior to the fire killing them. CO generally sinks but perhaps you could argue the heat from the fire caused it to rise. In reality flames from a building fire cause extremely dirty smoke that is not going to be pleasant to breathe while waiting for unconsciousness.
Most people in fires die from smoke inhalation rather than from the flames anyway. As the fire gets closer, hot gases, carbon monoxide, and combustion products are going to make the air unbreathable, even with wet cloth covering the victim’s mouths as in the OP.
In the OP’s scenario, I think it is much more likely that the victims would be slowed dramatically and would be suffering major symptoms of oxygen deprivation due to poisonous air and pulmonary distress caused by toxic substances irritating and swelling the lung tissues. They will likely reach a point where they are no longer thinking clearly (due to oxygen deprivation) but may have enough consciousness left to know that they are going to die, especially if they reach a barrier of some sort that they are too weak to go around or remove.
They are going to be coughing and choking all the way though, even with the damp cloths. Wet cloth does give some protection against smoke inhalation, but it’s not a cure-all. Some poisonous gases are still going to get through the wet cloth and will irritate the lung tissues. When the air gets hot enough, the wet cloth actually makes things worse, but at that point we’re talking about air temperatures that are turning the water into steam. The hot steam conducts heat better than dry air and causes more burn damage to the interior of the lungs. And yes, the air can get that hot in a fire.
Also keep in mind that we’re not talking about smoke from a camp fire here. There are all kinds of nasty chemicals in the smoke and gases caused by the burning of things like plastic carpet fibers and wall insulation materials and all sorts of stuff.