Ingredients to a fire

5/2/2019 (Permalink)

It takes the right ingredients to create a fire.

Question:  When is a fire like a cake?  Just like a cake, fires need certain ingredients to complete.  Remove just one of the ingredients, and it just doesn’t work.

The ingredients fires need are:  fuel, heat, oxygen, and an ignition source.

Fuel:  anything combustible, like paper, wood, dry grass, fabrics, etc.  Generally, anything that can burn easily.

Heat:  A fire needs the proper temperature range to not only start, but also to keep going once it has started.

Oxygen:  Like any living creature, fire needs the right air mixture to burn.

Ignition source:  Matches, lightning, a toaster, etc.  Anything to bring a fuel source close to its combustion point.

Once a fire has started, people fighting the fire have to control or eliminate one of the ingredients to stop the fire.  In church, an acolyte places a cup over a lit candle until the candle has used up all the available oxygen.  Crews fighting wildfires start a fire break; fires well ahead of the main fire, to rob the main fire of fuel.  Firefighters throw water on fires, to help lower the temperatures and possibly disperse some of the fuel.  Water also turns to steam, and it may disrupt the air mixture just enough to rob the fire.

There are other blogs on this site that deals with what type of fire extinguishers you need, as well as the different types of soot and residue left behind after a fire.

If you have suffered fire or smoke damage, call the experts at SERVPRO Bedford Park/Burbank. 708-430-3600.  We have the expertise to make it “Like it never even happened!”