Fire extinguishers – Processes – Of extinguishing fire
Patent
1996-04-23
1998-07-28
Hoge, Gary C.
Fire extinguishers
Processes
Of extinguishing fire
169 15, A62C 3558
Patent
active
057851263
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and a means for extinguishing fires in open or closed spaces using water and foam. The method is especially suitable for extinguishing fires in factories, ships, road tunnels etc, where mist and foam units and further means may be permanently mounted.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is known to use water also in the form of water mist and foam when extinguishing fires in different spaces. Also, different forms of non-combustible gases such as carbon dioxide and halones are used for this purpose.
In spaces which are regarded as being fire hazardous and which have been prepared for extinguishing of possible fires, water can be introduced for example by means of sprinklers. When the sprinkler water has a low pressure it will flow out in the form of a shower, whereas when it has a high pressure water mist will be produced. This water mist is produced both as a result of the high pressure and as a result of the water being ejected against a net or the like. The water then suitably has a pressure of 6 bar.
The water mist can also be made in units with a lower water pressure of for example 1.5 bar, whereby large amounts of air have to be blown into the unit from outside. Foam is produced in the same way, although pure water is then not used, but instead water to which a foaming agent has been added.
Foam for extinguishing purposes can also be made by means of special portable containers but the foam is then produced in another way than above.
Although the aforementioned extinguishing systems can extinguish most fires, they are, however, not perfect. It has i.a. shown itself to be the case that the hot combustion gases are the main cause of large scale damage from fires. It is therefore necessary to cool the combustion gases down quickly with normal sprinkler systems producing water droplets as well as water mist, the combustion gases are cooled effectively and, if the sprinkler system is combined with foam extinguishing, so-called pool fires can be extinguished. The expression pool fires includes fires which occur for instance on a floor in the shape of, for example, a burning liquid pool. This extinguishing system can however not cope with hidden fires, for example fires which occur in articles in a pile of pallets.
Only foam can extinguish all fires but the foam cannot cool the combustion gases so that the damage due to these hot combustion gases will occur anyway.
It has therefore been a long-felt want to be able to extinguish all types of fires and achieve a quick cooling of the combustion gases resulting in minimal damage.
Besides the above-mentioned problems the difficulty of arranging an automatic and hence quick action of the extinguishing system also arises since a risk exists that this can kill or seriously injure persons which are present in the burning space. Only foam can have this effect, whereas on the other hand water mist does not have this effect.
Some gases, of the Halon type and possible substitute agents, do not kill or seriously injure people, but since releasing a gaseous system largely means that all available extinguishing gas in the space is released, a new release cannot occur until after refilling. Other gases of the carbon dioxide type or other inert gases cannot be used in spaces where people are present due to the inherent reduction of oxygen.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
According to the present invention the problem associated with the aforementioned systems has been solved and a method for extinguishing fires in closed or open spaces using water and foam has been achieved, which method is characterized in that the water mist is initially produced without air supply from outside with the available air in the space until the temperature in the combustion gases has been lowered below a predetermined level or during a predetermined period of time, whereupon foam is produced in the space without air supply from outside and at a suitable speed for filling the space and extinguishing the f
REFERENCES:
patent: 2601899 (1952-07-01), Boerner
patent: 3356148 (1967-12-01), Jamison
patent: 3702158 (1972-11-01), Livingston et al.
patent: 3795368 (1974-03-01), Larah
patent: 4805700 (1989-02-01), Hoover
Hoge Gary C.
Svenska Skum AB
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