Thread: Just when you thought it was hot enough...
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Old 19-06-2005, 08:19   #10
fireman328
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Re: Just when you thought it was hot enough...
Quote:
Originally Posted by Graham
Just out of interest, does foam not work on such fires?
It does but to a very limited extent, ordinary foam is used as a blanket to exclude oxygen and requires that the oxygen depletion smothers the fire, however, with tyre stacks and other flammable open storage there is enough air, containing oxygen to allow combustion under the foam blanket to continue. The hot air rising from the fire and general wind and weather also displace the foam blanket.
High expansion foam is only used in enclosed areas as the foam generated is detergent foam and is easily displaced by wind and thermal currents. As I previously stated the only way to control this type of fire is to use water sprays to cool the fuel (tyres) to below the temperature required for combustion.
If you remember from your early school days chemistry lessons, for a fire to start you require :- HEAT, OXYGEN and FUEL, if you take any component out of this a fire generally cannot start.
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