Basically, a fire triangle or fire tetrahedron is a model that shows the elements or components of fire. There are three essential elements that are necessary to start a fire.
Table of Contents
Elements or components of the fire triangle:
- Fuel (Solid, liquid, and gas).
- Oxygen.
- Heat or source of ignition (spark, flame, static electricity, etc).
- If one of the conditions is missing then fire is not possible.
- If all sides are connected then fire occurs.
- If one of the elements is removed then fire is extinguished.
Fuel:
- Fuel must be present in a certain concentration.
- Typical cases where the fire occurs are if there is a leak during filling operations, transfer operations, or excessive dust.
- Often cannot always eliminate these sources, we can help by having good ventilation to keep vapors from building up.
- We can say that Fuel means “what is actually being burned”.
- Fuel physical states are, solid, liquid, and gas.
- Combustion occurs when fuel is in a gaseous state.
Examples of fuels:
- Liquid: Gasoline, acetone, ether, pentane.
- Solids: Plastics, wood dust, fibers, metal particles.
- Gases: Acetylene, propane, carbon monoxide, hydrogen, etc.
Oxidizer:
- Oxygen is the most common oxidizer, especially the oxygens found in ambient air.
- For oxygen, we often use “inerting” with nitrogen or helium blankets over flammable materials to reduce oxygen content, below the required amount for composition.
- Fire requires at least 16% oxygen in the air.
Examples of oxidizers:
- Liquids: Hydrogen peroxide, Nitric acid, perchloric acid.
- Solid: Metal peroxides ammonium nitrate.
- Gases: Oxygen, Fluorine, chlorine.
Ignition source:
- Heat is a common ignition source.
- One can eliminate ignition sources. It is almost inevitable that an ignition source will be available if there is a large release of flammable material that cannot be diluted quickly.
- Ignition sources are free.
Examples of ignition sources:
- The sun, spark, flames, static electricity, heat, etc.
What is fire tetrahedron?
The fire tetrahedron is a four-sided geometric representation of the four factors that are necessary for fire i.e
- Fuel.
- Heat.
- Oxygen.
- Chemical chain reaction.
Actually, it is a series of reactions that occurs in sequence with the results of each element reacting to each other.
Faq’s for fire triangle?
What is heat in the fire triangle?
Heat is one of the essential elements in the fire triangle. Heat is also known as the ignition source. Some other examples of ignition sources are the sun, sparks, flames, static electricity, etc. Without heat, fire is not possible.
What are the three elements of the fire triangle?
1. Fuel.
2. Oxygen.
3. Heat.
What is oxygen in the fire triangle?
Oxygen is also one of the essential elements in the fire triangle like heat and fuel. Without oxygen, fire is not possible.
What is the fourth element in fire tetrahedron?
The chemical chain reaction is the fourth element in fire tetrahedron.
Related topics: