A school I taught in for 21 years was found to have asbestos as a fire protection material in the ceilings! It was a Victorian building with very good outside fire-escapes to the upstairs classrooms. The asbestos has presumably been put in in modern times as a safety regulation. A child there once set his coat alight in the cloakroom by leaving a lit cigarette in his pocket (little monkey). His coat melted and set all the others alight. They were of a nylon-type material and the smoke was horrendous. It filled the corridor and you couldn't see a hand in front of your face. The fire-alarm went off and my class escaped out of the door to the carpark leading from our room. The others all got out safely. But the thickness of that smoke showed me that it's far more dangerous than actual flames. It was jet black and rolled along like a tsunami. The fire crew said it was terribly toxic. All the coats were merely a little coloured puddle under each peg!