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The
Fire Triangle
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In
order to understand how fire extinguishers work, you first need
to know a little bit about fir
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Four
things must be present at the same time in order to produce
fire :
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Enough
oxygen to sustain combustion, |
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Enough
heat to raise the material
to its ignition temperature, |
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Some
sort of fuel or combustible
material, and |
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The chemical, exothermic reaction that
is fire |
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Oxygen,
heat, and fuel are frequently referred to as the "fire
triangle."
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Add in
the fourth element, the chemical reaction, and you actually
have a fire "tetrahedron." The important thing to
remember is : take any of these four
things away, and you will not have a fire or the fire will
be extinguished.
Essentially, fire extinguishers put
out fire by taking away one or more elements of the fire triangle
/ tetrahedron. Fire safety, at its most basic,
is based upon the principle of keeping fuel sources and ignition
sources separate.
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Not all
fires are the same, and they are classified according to the
type of fuel that is burning. If you use the wrong type of
fire extinguisher on the wrong class of fire, you can, in
fact, make matters worse. It is therefore very important to
understand the four different fire classifications.
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