Understanding Fire Protection products

There is a large variety of fire protection products available on the market, however, using them the wrong way can make a fire scenario incalculably worse, at the Fire Middle East Conference 2024, we heard from professionals and experts, as they shared their stories involving fire protection products.

Sebastian Ukleja’s Experience

Sebastian Ukleja, from the Emirates Testing Laboratory, shared one such experience, not experienced by him, by his wife. At his home, whilst he was away, she was looking after their young child, when a fire began in the kitchen, quickly smoke filled the room, and the fire demanded action.

Luckily, she was well trained in the appropriate fire protection products to use, ventilating the room, and extinguishing the fire before it could grow to be self-sustaining.

However, this fire was caused in part by cooking oil, using a water-based product to combat the fire, would have resulted in mass spreading, and could have led to serious injury for either the wife involved or the young child.

Sebastians’ presentation described his experiences, with using proper fire protection products, and how these products are regularly tested in all manner of conditions at the Emirates Safety Laboratory, or ESL. There are many different varieties of Fire protection products available, and many different companies which stress test them, before a fire scenario occurs, it is important to have a grasp of all the tools available to you, as well as what you might be lacking, which you can then go to order online, to ensure the safety of your establishment.

Typical Fire Protection Products

There are a wide variety of fire protection products available on the marketplace, what matters is your understanding of how to use these products. Do you know which extinguisher is appropriate for which fire? And how these fire protection products are appropriately tested, to begin with?

The appropriate testing and handling of fire protection products, such as the following, was a topic of great discussion at the Fire Middle East Conference when it took place in May of this past year. Consider the following, a brush-up on your knowledge:

Water-Fire Extinguisher – Perfect for Class A Fires, which are fires which involve wood, paper, or other burning textiles. This cannot be used on Class B, or Class C fires, as they can spread the danger area, and will fail to put out the fire in question.

Foam-Fire Extinguisher – This can be used on Class A or Class B fires, however shouldn’t be used on Class C fires. The cooling foam blankets the fire, suffocating it from oxygen, and cooling the area dramatically.

Carbon-Dioxide Extinguisher – This is effective in Class B Fires, and Class C Electrical Fires (Electrical Fires), CO2 displaces oxygen suffocating fire and cooling burning material.

Dry-Powder Fire Extinguisher – This is effective on all fire types, however, should not be used in enclosed areas – the powder suffocates the fire and cuts off the oxygen supply.

Wet Chemical Fire Extinguisher – This is specifically to be used on Class F fires, such as cooking oils, and fats. It is a chemical agent, that forms a soapy layer on the burning oil or fat, cooling it and preventing reignition.

However, extinguishers are only one type of fire protection product, others include fire blankets, sprinklers, and other water-based products such as hoses, and internal pumps. Fire doors are larger, more infrastructure-based fire protection products, however similarly work to save lives and stifle the motion of a fire.

All these and more were discussed at length at the Innovative Technologies and Best Practices panel at the Fire Middle East Conference 2024, to find out more about the conference, and register your interest, sign up using the following link. 

There are many different types of fire protection products, however, all of them are useless, if the person using them, is not being careful, understanding, and caring about their positioning and surroundings, alongside the capabilities of the product in their hand, alongside the type of fire they are addressing.