FIRE SAFETY

Staying alive in the theater by

knowing how to deal with fire
 Basic Terms of Combustion
• Fuel is any material that can be made to
combust.
• When a fire runs out of fuel it will stop.
• Fuel can be removed naturally, as where the fire has consumed
all the burnable fuel, or manually, by mechanically or chemically
removing the fuel from the fire.
• Fuel separation is an important factor in wild land fire.
suppression, and is the basis for most major tactics.
• Other fuels may also be chemically altered to prevent them from
burning at ordinary temperatures, perhaps as part of a fire-
prevention measure.
 Heat
• Without sufficient heat, a fire cannot begin, and it cannot continue.
• Heat can be removed by dousing some types of fire with water; the
water turns to steam, taking the heat with it.
• Note that water will actually increase or spread some other types of
fires (such as combustible metal fires, see comments below).
• Separating burning fuels from each other can also be an effective
way to reduce the heat. In forest fires, burning logs are separated
and placed into safe areas where there is no other fuel.
• Scraping embers from a burning structure also removes the heat
source.
• Turning off the electricity in an electrical fire removes the heat
source, although other fuels may have caught fire and continue
burning until the firefighter addresses them and their fire triangles
too.
 Oxygen
• Oxygen may be removed from a fire by smothering it
with an aqueous foam, or some inert gas (e.g.,
carbon dioxide, Halon), dry chemicals, or enclosing it
where the fire will quickly use up all of the available
oxygen. A candle snuffer uses this principle.
• Oxygen for the fire may also be instantaneously
consumed, if only for a moment, by more
sophisticated means such as using explosives to
snuff an oil well gas fire.
• Once the gas fire is out, it is not hot enough to start
again, but workers must be extremely careful not to
create sparks.
 The Fire Triangle
• The fire triangle or combustion triangle is a simple model,
from the science of firefighting, for understanding the ingredients
necessary for most fires. It has largely been replaced in the
industry by the fire tetrahedron, which provides a more
complete model, also described later.
• The triangle illustrates the rule that in order to ignite and burn, a
fire requires three elements heat, fuel, and oxygen. The fire is
prevented or extinguished by removing any one of them.
• A fire naturally occurs when the elements are combined in the
right mixture (e.g., more heat needed for igniting some fuels,
unless there is concentrated oxygen).
The Triangle
 The Fire tetrahedron
• The fire triangle is a useful teaching tool, but fails to
identify the fourth essential element of fire: the
sustaining chemical reaction.
• This has led to development of the fire tetrahedron:
a triangular pyramid having four sides (including the
bottom).
• In most fires, it does not matter which element gets
removed; the fire fails to ignite, or it goes out.
However, there are certain chemical fires where
knowing only the fire triangle is not good enough.
The tetrahedron
How the tetrahedron can help
• Combustion is the chemical reaction that feeds a fire more heat
and allows it to continue.
• With most types of fires, the old fire triangle model works well
enough, but when the fire involves burning metals (known as a
class-D fire in the American system of fire classifications,
involving metals like sodium, lithium, magnesium, etc.), it
becomes useful to consider the chemistry of combustion.
• Putting water on such a fire could result in the fire getting hotter
(or even exploding) because such metals can react with water in
an exothermic reaction to produce flammable hydrogen gas.
• Therefore, other specialized chemicals must typically be used to
break the chain reaction of metallic combustion and stop the
fire.
 Fire control
• Fire control consists of depriving a fire of fuel, oxygen or heat
(see fire triangle) to prevent it from spreading or to put it out
entirely.
• The standard and most common way to control a class-A fire
(the combustion of a flammable material with oxygen and heat)
is to remove heat by spraying the burning solid fuels with water
from a fire-hose connected to a pump.
• Other methods of controlling a class-A fire would be to
"smother" the fire with carbon dioxide, such as from a fire
extinguisher, cutting off it's oxygen. In a forest fire, fire control
would usually consist of removing fuel in the fire's path and
digging trenches - this prevents the fire from gaining new fuel
and spreading.
 Classes of Fires
• 1 class-a fires
• 2 class-b fires
• 3 class-c fires
• 4 class-d fires
• 5 class-k fires
 Class A
• Class-A fires are the most common type of fire, that occurs when a material such as wood
or other fiber becomes sufficiently hot, and has oxygen available to it, causing combustion.
(See fire triangle) At this point the material bursts into flame, and will continue burning as
long as the fire triangle (heat, fuel, and oxygen) continues to be available to it.
• Class-A fires are used all around buildings and everywhere in the world in controlled
circumstances, such as a campfire, lighter, match, or candle. This makes an example easy
to come by. For example, a campfire has a fire triangle - the heat is provided by another fire
(such as a match or lighter), the fuel is the wood, and the oxygen is naturally available in the
open-air environment of a forest. This fire is not dangerous, because the fire is contained to
the wood alone and is usually isolated from the ground by rocks.
• However, when a class-A fire burns in an environment where fuel and oxygen are in
accessible positions, the fire can quickly grow out of control; this is the case where
firefighting and fire control techniques are required.Class-A fires are fairly simple to fight and
contain - by simply removing the heat or oxygen (or in some cases fuel), the fire triangle
collapses and the fire dies out.
• The most common way to do this is by removing the heat by spraying the fire with water.
• Other means of control or containment would be to "smother" the fire with carbon dioxide or
nitrogen from a fire extinguisher, cutting off its oxygen and causing the fire to die.
• Class-A fires are the most commonly encountered fires, and as such most fire departments
have equipment to handle them specifically. While this is acceptable for most ordinary
conditions, most firefighters find themselves having to call for special equipment such as
foam in the case of other fires.
Fire Extinguisher types -ABC
• 1.ABC Dry Chemical: These are found in
sizes containing from 5 to 20 pounds of
monoammonium phosphate.
Monoammonium phosphate is a finely
ground extinguishing agent, which looks like
yellow talcum powder. Nitrogen gas is used
for propellant.
• This extinguisher is particularly effective on
class A, B, and C fires but is also extremely
messy.
• Operation is fairly simple. Pull the pin
through the seal, aim the extinguisher at the
base of the fire and sweep from side to side.
The extinguisher has a range of about 15
feet. These extinguishers are found in
hallways and occasionally in labs.
 Class B
• Class-B fires are combustible fuels,
These fires follow the same basic fire
triangle (heat, fuel, and oxygen) as
class-A fires, except that the fuel in
question is a solvent (liquid).
 Fighting a Class “B” fire
• Class-B fires (hydrocarbons and fuels on fire) require much
different handling than the standard water approach.
• Many fuels, such as gasoline or oil float on water, and water
would actually end up spreading the fire further.
• Other fuels, such as coal, will not be put out by water, as fire
spreads to the inside of the coal and cannot be reached by
water - as soon as the water stops, the fire inside of the coal
spreads back out to the outside. Fire control of these fires
requires specialized methods, and can be problematic to
ordinary fire stations due to the fact that these materials may not
always be available.
• One way to control a class-B fire would be to dump chemical
dust on it - this is also a method for handling class-A fires, and
actually tends to be preferable due to the fact that sprayed water
tends to cause property damage.
• Gasoline fires are more often smothered in a cooling protein
foam.
 Class “C” fire
• Class-C fires are electrical fires, where the heat side of the fire
triangle is caused by, for example, short-circuiting machinery or
overloaded electrical outlets.
• These fires can be a severe hazard to firefighters using water:
when the solid stream of water hits the electrical fire, the electricity
is conducted through it and into the hose, then into the firefighter's
body. Electrical shocks have caused many firefighter deaths.
• There are two main ways of fighting a class-C fire: cutting off its
oxygen, or simply turning off the electricity to the fire from a
breaker.
• A class-C fire can be put out with a fire extinguisher rated for
class-C fires, or with protein foam, but the primary approach is to
simply turn off the power as noted above. This causes the fire to
become an ordinary class-A fire, or perhaps to die out entirely.
 Fighting a Class “C” fire
• Class-C fires are electrical fires - fires that are
caused by an electrical source and get their
heat from electricity.
• These fires are dangerous because if water is
used on them, electrical current will be
passed through the stream and back into the
firefighter.
• There are only two ways to deal with this type
of fire - take away the oxygen (smother it with
foam or a fire extinguisher) or simply turn off
the electricity, which will cause the fire to
either die out or become a regular class-A
fire.
Fire Extinguisher types -C02
• 2.Carbon Dioxide: This is a high
pressure vessel filled with either 5
or 10 pounds of liquid CO2.
• It is only to be used on flammable
liquid or electrical fires.
• Because the CO2 is expelled as a
gas the extinguisher has a very
limited operation range of about 4
to 6 feet.
• This extinguisher is found mostly in
labs or mechanical rooms. The
carbon dioxide extinguisher can be
easily identified because it does not
have a pressure gauge.
Halon
• 3.Halon: A halon fire
extinguisher uses
bromochlorodifluoromethane,
halon 1211, as its
extinguishing agent.
• Halon is an extremely clean
agent leaving no residue. This
makes it a good agent for use
around computers and other
sensitive equipment.
• Range is about 15 feet. Pull
the pin, aim at the base of the
fire and sweep from side to
side. Operation is similar to
the ABC extinguisher.
 Class D fires
• Class-D fires are metal fires. Certain metals, such as sodium,
titanium, magnesium, potassium, uranium, lithium, plutonium,
calcium and others are flammable. Magnesium and titanium
fires are common.
• When one of these combustible metals ignites, it can easily and
rapidly spread to surrounding class-A materials.
• Generally, masses of combustible metals do not represent
unusual fire risks because they have the ability to conduct heat
away from hot spots so efficiently that the heat of combustion
cannot be maintained - this means that it will require a lot of
heat to ignite a mass of combustible metal.
• Generally, metal fire risks exist when sawdust, machine
shavings and other metal 'fines' are present. Generally, these
fines can be ignited by the same types of ignition sources that
would start other common fires.
 Fighting Class “D” fires
• Water and other common firefighting materials can excite metal
fires and make them worse.
• The NFPA recommends that class D fires be fought with 'dry
powder' extinguishing agents. Dry Powder agents work by
smothering and heat absorption. The most common of these
agents are sodium chloride granules and graphite powder. In
recent years powdered copper has also come into use.
• Some extinguishers use dry chemical extinguishing agents. This is
easily confusable with dry powder. They are quite different, and
using one of these extinguishers in error in place of dry powder
can actually increase the size of a class D fire much like
water.Class-D fires represent a unique hazard because people
are often not aware of the characteristics of these fires and are not
properly prepared to fight them.
• Even a small class-D fire can spread class-A fires to the
surrounding combustible materials. Most fire stations do not have
class-D extinguishing agents available to them, making fighting
these fires a logistical problem - however, most places where
these materials are found there is a hopper filled with the proper
extinguishing agent.
Dry Powder for Class “D”
• Dry Powder: These extinguishers are for
use on metal fires. Extinguishment is
achieved by isolating and smothering the
fire with either a graphite or sodium
chloride based powder.
• Some of these extinguishers are cartridge
operated, so they are a little different to
use: before the agent can be released a
plunger on the side of the extinguisher
must be pushed down to charge the
extinguisher with propellant.
• Once charged, the operator depresses the
handle at the nozzle and lets the powder
flow over the fire. Range is about 1 to 2
feet
• The newer dry powder extinguishers are
mounted on 2 wheel carts. Operation is
similar to ABC, Halon and Carbon Dioxide
extinguishers. Pull pin, take the hose and
wand assembly out of the retainer and
aim at base of the fire. Range is 3 to 6
feet.
 Class “K” fires

• Class-K fires are fires that involve

cooking oils.
• Though by definition Class-K is a
subclass of Class-B, the special
characteristics of these types of fires
are considered important enough to
recognize.
Class K Fire Extinguishers
• In recent years there has been a trend for
commercial kitchens to start using much
more efficient cooking appliances and
unsaturated cooking oils that operate at
much higher temps than the previous oils
and appliances. The class K extinguisher was
developed to combat this new hazard.
• This extinguisher uses a wet potassium
acetate based, low pH agent that has a
greater fire fighting and cooling effect for
this type of hazard.
• Most of these extinguishers can safely be
used on Class A, B, and C fires also.
• Their range is 10-12 feet and will last for
about 40 seconds. Once again break the seal
pull the pin and aim at the base of the fire.
Class K extinguishers can be found in
kitchens on campus.
 When and How to fight a fire
• Before deciding to fight a fire, be certain that:
• The fire is small and not spreading. A fire can double in size
within two or three minutes.
• You have the proper fire extinguisher for what is burning.
• The fire won't block your exit if you can't control it. A good way
to ensure this is to keep the exit at your back.
• You know your fire extinguisher works. Inspect extinguishers
once a month for dents, leaks or other signs of damage. Assure
the pressure is at the recommended level. On extinguishers
equipped with a gauge, the needle should be in the green zone -
not too high and not too low.
• You know how to use your fire extinguisher. There's not enough
time to read instructions when a fire occurs.
 Then Fight the Fire Safely:
• Stand with an exit at your back.
• Stand several feet away from the fire, moving
closer once the fire starts to diminish.
• Use a sweeping motion and aim at the base of
the fire.
• If possible, use a "buddy system" to have
someone back you up or call for help if
something goes wrong.
• Be sure to watch the area for awhile to ensure it
doesn't re-ignite.
 Never Fight A Fire If:
• ･The fire is spreading rapidly. Only use a fire
extinguisher when the fire is in its early stages. If the fire
is already spreading quickly, evacuate and call the fire
department.
• You don't know what is burning. Unless you know
what is burning, you won't know what type of fire
extinguisher to use. Even if you have an ABC
extinguisher, there could be something that will explode
or produce highly toxic smoke.
• You don't have the proper fire extinguisher. The
wrong type of extinguisher can be dangerous or life-
threatening.
• There is too much smoke or you are at risk of
inhaling smoke. Seven out of ten fire-related deaths
occur from breathing poisonous gases produced by the
fire.
 Using A Fire Extinguisher
P A S S
•Pull the Pin at the top of the extinguisher. The pin releases a locking
mechanism and will allow you to discharge the extinguisher.

•Aim at the base of the fire, not the flames. This is important - in order
to put out the fire, you must extinguish the fuel.

•Squeeze the lever slowly. This will release the extinguishing agent in
the extinguisher. If the handle is released, the discharge will stop.

•Sweep from side to side. Using a sweeping motion, move the fire
extinguisher back and forth until the fire is completely out. Operate the
extinguisher from a safe distance, several feet away, and then move
towards the fire once it starts to diminish. Be sure to read the instructions
on your fire extinguisher - different fire extinguishers recommend
operating them from different distances.

•Remember: Aim at the base of the fire, not at the flames!!!!

Stop Drop and Roll
 Fire will Produce:
• Any sort of fire will produce some amount of
carbon monoxide, the most deadly gas
produced by a fire.
• Materials such as wool, silk, nylon and some
plastics can produce other highly toxic gases
such as carbon dioxide, hydrogen cyanide, or
hydrogen chloride.
• Beware - all of these gases can be fatal!
• Smoke inhalation or exposure to fire itself can
be life threatening so get educated about the
basics in CPR and burn treatment.
 Remember:
• A typical fire extinguisher contains 10 seconds of
extinguishing power. This could be less if it has
already been partially discharged.
• Always read the instructions that come with the fire
extinguisher beforehand and become familiarized
with its parts. It is highly recommended by fire
prevention experts that you get hands-on training
before operating a fire extinguisher. Most local fire
departments offer this service.
• Once the fire is out, don't walk away! Watch
the area for a few minutes in case it re-
ignites. Get the extinguisher recharged
immediately after use - check that this has
been done as You may have to use it again.
 When in doubt, get out!
• If you use a fire extinguisher, notify Mr.
Holter and the nurse immediately!
• Environmental Health and Safety will
have to be notified soon as possible.
• Never remount an extinguisher after
use - set it aside in a space it can bee
seen
• Remember: When in doubt, get
out!!!!!