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Basic Fire Safety Awareness Course Notes
FIRE
SAFETY
Introduction
Fire is the rapid oxidation of a material in the exothermic chemical process of
combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction products. Fire in its most
common form can result in conflagration, which has the potential to cause
physical damage through burning. The negative effects of fire include water
contamination, soil erosion, atmospheric pollution and hazard to life and
property. Fire hazards are referred to as threats to fire safety. This hazard may be
a situation that increases the possibility of a fire to occur or may hinder escape in
the event of a fire.
Triangle of Fire
One way of looking at combustion is in terms of the triangle of combustion. It is
considered that for combustion to occur, three factors are necessary:
Presence of oxygen
o Atmospheric Oxygen
o Oxydising agents
o Other chemicals (Permanganates, Acids, Chlorine, Fluorine, etc)
Alternatively, the action of bacteria on certain organic materials can cause a rise
in temperature eventually leading to active combustion.
A fine state of sub-division, as in flour, powdered coal and some metals, could
also lead to spontaneous combustion.
The thermal insulation factor is of great importance in this type of combustion.
Without this insulation, the heat would escape and there would be no fire.
Flammable Liquids with a flash point between 320C and 550C
Highly flammable Liquids with a flash point below 320C
Causes of Fire
Fires in workplaces start for many different reasons. Some of the most common
causes of workplace fires are:
Hot work any work involving the use of naked flames (e.g. a propane torch
or oxy-acetylene cutting equipment) or that creates a significant ignition
source (e.g. arc-welding and grinding).
Unsafe use and storage of flammable liquids and gases, e.g. petrol, acetone
and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). Static sparks can be generated which
could ignite a flammable vapour.
Consequences of Fire
Consequences may be split into three main groups
smoking
Human Harm
o Fire has the potential for major loss of life due to direct contact with
heat and flame or from the effects of smoke and toxic gases.
Economic Loss
o Commercial losses from fire are substantial even though recent
workplace injury and death has been low. When fire do occur in the
workplace the organization is usually so badly affected it does not
resume business again.
Environmental Degradation
o Our local and wider environment are polluted and deteriorated at
the time of occurrence of fire in workplace. Air pollution may arise
due to harmful and toxic gases released as result of fire in
workplace. Water and land pollution also increased due to debris of
collapsed building and structure. Even though sudden increase in
temperature may disturb natural cycles of environment.
Direct burning
Convection
Conduction
Radiation
Class B
Class C
Class C type fires are caused by combustion of gases for example:
hydrogen, natural gas, methane, propane and acetylene.
Class D
Class D fires involve combustible metals such as sodium,
magnesium, aluminium, lithium and potassium. These types of
fires require special fire extinguishers.
Class F
Review
Review your fire-risk assessment regularly
Make changes where necessary
Extinguishing Methods
Basically to extinguish fire using either the portable fire extinguishers or fire hose
lines, we could either remove any 1, 2 or 3 elements of fire by:
1.
Cooling the fire using pressurized water fire extinguisher or water hose
lines for class A fires. This is removal of the heat element.
2.
3.
Starvation Removal of the fuel like burning gas/ oil pipeline, shut off main
valve and valve leading to next pipeline.
(i)
(ii)
(iii)
(iv)
Water
Foam
Powder
Carbon dioxide
COLOUR
Signal red
Signal red
with
pale
Hose Real -When dealing with small outbreaks of fire, the hose reel
equipment is often the most effective, depending on the type of fire.
As it delivers only water, its use is restricted to Class A fires.
Automatic Sprinkler System A network of water pipes with spray heads
normally at ceiling height is installed in vulnerable areas. Large
coverage of water to prevent the spread of fire in large open plan
buildings where compartmentalisation is not practical. its use is
restricted to Class A fires.
Total Flooding System A high concentration of an extinguishing gas
(usually carbon dioxide) is automatically dumped in an enclosed area.
Pull
Aim
Squeeze
Sweep