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Three of four to make fire...


Externet

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Temperature or spark, fuel and oxygen are required. However as accurate as that is . There is one aspect missing. For this I will refer to haylon fire extinquishers . How did they work. They didn't cool the fuel, one version didn't displace oxygen and they didn't remove the fuel.

 

Instead it was realized haylon worked by interfering with the rapid oxydization or preventing the chemical chain reaction of oxygen with the fuel. So I would say there is 4 requirements.

 

Fuel, spark, oxygen and chemical chain reaction.

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Yes, I deal with pyrophoric substances in my work and have limited fire-fighter training.

The training specifies all four are needed.

In effect, a spark is only needed for ignition and temperature is only needed to sustain.

Fuel and oxidizer are always needed ( unless combined in an organic oxidizer ).

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firetet.png

 

This is the one I learned.

 

You need to supply the activation energy for the reaction to take place. Other fires or "sparks" of typically burning wood or metal, can be a source, but you can accomplish the same thing with heat alone(autoignition). We probably all have fond memories of seeing flames once, while attempting to cook on a stove or in an oven.

Edited by Endy0816
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Endy0816 has it right. Trainers used to talk of a fire triangle, but it has been amended to a tetrahedron.

Yes I have fond memories of fires also...

Flames 50 ft high around a gasholder containing several hundred kgs of phosphine gas.

With the 'real' firefighters afraid to come into the plant.

Sigh.

 

The last and only chemistry I actually recall from school ( gr 13, pre-university ) is that titanium burns in a nitrogen atmosphere.

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Yeah, we are just bad about considering fire only in terms of our atmospheric composition. Admittedly it does play a large role in terms of what we see on a regular basis, but you can end up with cases where the reaction could care less about oxygen deprivation.

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