Strategy and tactics for fighting a refinery fire

(Prud 'homme Khan , 1996 ,

. 466

Firefight

The facility and its management team has gone to great lengths in ensuring that firebreaks will not occur . But the most prepared team must ultimately prepare for accidents because just like night follows day the possibility of a refinery fire should not be discounted

When the refinery is suddenly overwhelmed by flames then it means that the fire has already penetrated the area where fuels are stored . In the event of this happening firemen turns to sophisticated materials and equipment to battle the blaze

. One of the most useful is extinguisher such as foams and high-technology tools such as thermal imagers

Foams

It was already pointed out a while ago that fuel fires can only be properly extinguished with the use of the following combo : cooling barrier action and steam dilution of surrounding air (see Prud 'homme Khan 1996 . Foams have properties that can effectively contain raging fuel fires by lowering the temperature and by creating a tight blanket-like cover to snuff out the flames . Most importantly a foam can enhance the ability of water to battle fuel fires

Indeed there is one agent that can do those three jobs it is a material commonly known as foam . With the introduction of liquid fuels to everyday life it was quickly realized that in the event of a fire involving such material , water was found to be denser than the hydrocarbon fuel . So a high velocity nozzle spraying a ton of water on a burning gas or fuel will only result in the sinking ' of the more dense water and not be able to interact with the fuel or worse the water can boil and explode thereby scattering the flaming liquid (Prud 'homme Khan , 1996 ,

. 468

The following are some of the more...