The Oxford English Dictionary describes fire as :

fire
• a process in which substances combine chemically with oxygen from the air and typically give out bright light, heat, and smoke; combustion or burning : his house was destroyed by fire.

The best method in which to describe the way a fire burns is through the Fire Triangle.

• Heat – a fire cannot begin without sufficient heat to ignite the fuel
• Fuel – the fuel is what the heat reacts with and consumes.
• Oxygen – the oxygen that a fire needs is used to support the chemical reaction which takes place when the heat consumes the fuel. In fact, what we call “fire” is really the chemical reaction of combustion. Combustion is defined as the reaction in which oxygen molecules react with the molecules of the substance being burned.

Fire can destroy a house and all its possession­s in less than 20 minutes, and it can reduce an entire forest to a pile of ash and charred wood. It’s also a terrifying weapon, with nearly unlimited destructive power which kills more people every year than any other force of nature.

It is estimated that the annual cost of fire in developed nations is around 1% of GDP. To put this in a South African context, the devastating effects of fire cost South Africans in the region of around R 22 billion each year or R 60 million each day or R 2.5 million each hour or an unbelievable R41666.00 per minute.

Fire and Fire Retardants

A fire retardant is a substance other than water which reduces the flammability or delays the ignition of its protected substrate.

Fire retardants work in the initial phase of burning, reacting to contain the spread of flame, securing and controlling the effected area until a flash over occurs, when this happens the fire will grow and consume more area of the fuel it is feeding off.

Once this happens, the fire retardants will again control and secure the effected areas until the coating/chemical has been burnt out, and so the process repeats itself.

One of two things may happen next.

1. The ignition source may be effectively wear out, taking heat out of the equation, and the fire self extinguishing.

or

2. The process will slowly continue repeating itself, over and over again until the heat source and available fuel outweighs and over powers the fire retardant capabilities, finally flashing over into a fully developed fire.

While it is possible to render something “fireproof”, it is nearly always not economically, environmentally, or logistically feasible to do so.

This is how the compromise of the application of fire retardants is reached. In event of a fire their ability to control, isolate, delay, protect and safeguard the lives and capital investments in its vicinity cannot be under estimated.