Fire Understanding

The Phenomenon of Fire

Fire is the visible heat energy being released from rapid oxidation of afuel.  Something is
'on fire' when the exothermal release of heat from the oxidation reactionreaches visible light level.

Basically, combustion takes place within two modes-flaming andflameless. The flaming mode can be viewed as a tetrahedron, with each siderepresenting one of the four basic
components of flaming combusion: fuel, heat, oxygen and uninhibited chainreaction. Here the practical emphasis is on extinguishing an existingfire.

The classic fire triangle illustrates the flameless mode, the three legsrepresenting fuel, oxygen and heat. Air provides oxygen forcombustion. The heat required for ignition varies with the characteristicsof the fuel. Fuel is any substance that will sustain combusion after theinitial application of heat to start it. Here the practical emphasis is onpreventing a fire from starting by prohibiting the formation of thetriangle.   

Fire Protection Improve

Australia, -- Standards Australia has released an interim standard to assist fireauthorities in the selection and development of protective clothing forfirefighters. Fire agencies, the fabric technology industry, manufacturers andunion representatives contributed to the development of interim standard AS4967 -- 2001 -- Protective clothing for firefighters -- Requirements and testmethods for protective clothing used for structural firefighting. The recentlyselected New South Wales Fire Brigade uniforms have a garment shell andprotective liner for ease of cleaning and long-term maintenance. They conformto the standard. Two other fire clothing standards have also been released -- AS4824 (Int) -- 2001 -- Protective clothing for firefighters -- Requirements andtest methods for protective clothing used for wildland firefighting, and AS/NZS4821 (Int) -- 2000 -- Firefighters' protective footwear.