FIRE HAZARD SERIES- The Chemistry of Fire and why it is important

Last week, we did a detailed article on how to use fire extinguishers and promised that our next article will focus on the various types of fire extinguishers. When we looked at the amount of information we need to publish in order to give you deep understanding, we decided to break them into parts for you to get the full knowledge and make better decisions.

Thus, today we start a series on Fire Hazards. Make sure to come back every week for the next interesting and informative article.

Quick Summary on Fire Chemistry and Why Class Matters

First, it helps to get a brief explanation of the basic elements of a fire. For the purpose of this discussion, five classes of fire will be briefly defined:

• Class A: freely burning, combustible solid materials such as wood or paper
• Class B: flammable liquid or gas
• Class C: energized electrical fire (energized electrical source serves as the ignitor of a class A or B fire – if the electrical source is removed, it is no longer a class C fire)
• Class D: metallic fire (titanium, zirconium, magnesium, sodium)
• Class K: cooking fires – animal or vegetable oils or fats

Regardless of the type of fire, there will always be the same four elements present:

1. Fuel
2. Heat
3. Oxygen
4. Chain Reaction

The theory behind portable fire extinguishers is that the fire can be extinguished by removing any one or more of these four elements.

For each class of fire, the fuel, heat source and chain reaction vary, which is why there must be different types of fire extinguishers depending on the class of fire. For instance, while a class A fire can be safely extinguished with water, a class C fire cannot, as water would conduct the electricity and risk harm to the operator.

STAY TUNED FOR NEXT ARTICLE.