Just learned about the Kaprun disaster in which 155 people lost their lives when an underground train caught fire.
There were only 12 survivors all of whom followed the advice of a retired firefighter who advised them to run downhill through the flames in the rear of the train.
The steep incline of the tunnel acted as a blast furnace that sucked in fresh air from the low end and funneled toxic smoke to the high end.
Not sure how applicable this will be to anyone here, but I thought it a great example of how a little more widespread knowledge of how fire works could have saved a lot of lives.
Tl;dr fire bad but smoke worse. Get to fresh air.
No. Structures on fire tend to collapse, and then you have fire falling onto you. That sounds like a bad idea.
It may either be that or waiting at the top of a burning structure thats going to collapse?
once you get to the top of the structure, evolve some kind of hot air balloon to float to safety.