Definition of "flashover" [flashover]

• An unintended electric arc, as between two pieces of apparatus. (noun)
• The temperature point at which the heat in an area or region is high enough to ignite all flammable material simultaneously. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "TODD: Federal officials tell us it only takes about a minute - and-a-half for what they call a flashover -- for the cabin to be engulfed in smoke, as shown in this simulation."
• "But Lentini says science proves these pour patterns were really caused by a recently accepted phenomenon called flashover, the point, when a fire in a room becomes a room on fire."
• "But tests conducted in the 1990s showed that fires can hit the point of "flashover" - when all combustible surfaces ignite at once - in under four minutes with no accelerants."