WHAT IS FIRE?

Let us check the definition from the Webster’s New World College Dictionary on Power CD.




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Other books define FIRE as chemical reaction involving rapid oxidation (combustion) of a fuel. (Guidelines for Fire Protection in Chemical Petrochemical, and Hydrocarbon Processing Facilities,Appendix B, Understanding Fires). This definition can be understood by engineers, scientists, and may be some individual. Let me define in simple term, as what they call "in layman's term". Fire is the reaction when we apply enough heat to burnable material with the presence of oxygen. With the help of Webster’s New World College Dictionary on Power CD let us look for the definition of heat and oxygen.












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I hope that those definitions of Heat and Oxygen will give you enough idea. Anyway, oxygen is abundant in Air. The air we breathe contains 21 % of oxygen. Because air is present everywhere we can always assume that any burnable materials is in contact or will easily be in contact with oxygen. If you are thinking what are those burnable materials I will give you several examples.


Let me introduce first the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA). This association is composed of several engineers and specialist in fire protection. They published NFPA 10, Standard for Portable Fire Extinguishers. This standard classify the different type of burnable materials into what kind of fire it will create




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I think now it is clear to readers that most of the things around us burn: our clothes, any products made of wood, plastic materials, products made of oil such as gasoline and lubricants, even metals burn. Therefore, there is a great risks on those burnable materials if we will not provide fire protection systems.