Fire spread

The fire spreads easily by, e.g., running liquid fire, a pool fire, a fire ball, heat radiation or thermal lift (convection). 

Keep flammable chemicals apart from oxidizing agents Design layout to avoid domino effects/fire spread Segregate empty and full containers... 

Probability of fire spread, with a need for, e.g., fire walls, fire doors, fire stops. 

Ninety minutes after the fire started, the sphere burst. Ten out of 12 firemen within 50 m were killed. Men 140 m away were badly burned by a wave of propane that came over the eompound wall. Altogether, 15-18 men were killed (reports differ), and about 80 were injured. The area was abandoned. Flying debris broke tbe legs of an adjacent sphere, w hich fell over. Its relief valve discharged liquid, which added to the fire, and 45 minutes later this sphere burst. Altogether, five spheres and two other pressure vessels burst, and three were damaged. The fire spread to gasoline and fuel oil tanks. 

A tank burst when exposed to fire for 90 minutes. During this time the Fire Department had, on advice of the refinery staff, used the available water for cooling surrounding tanks to prevent the fire spreading. The relief valve, it was believed, would prevent the tank bursting. They failed to realize that the tank could burst because the metal could get too hot and lose its strength. Below the liquid level the boiling liquid kept the metal cool, but above the liquid level the metal softened and burst at a pressure below that at which the relief valve would operate. 

Immediately after this blast, a fire originated at the west end of B Module and erupted into a fireball along the west face. The fire spread quickly to neighboring portions of the platform. Approximately 20 minutes later, a major explosion happened due to the rupture of the Tartan gas riser. This occurrence caused a massive and prolonged high pressure jet of flames that generated intense heat. At about 10 50 PM, another immense blast occurred that was believed to be a result of the rupture of the MCP-01 gas riser. Debris from this explosion was projected up to 800 m. away from the platform. Structural deterioration at the level below Module B had begun. This failure was accelerated by a series of additional explosions. One of these eruptions was caused by the fracture of the Claymore gas riser. Eventually, the vast majority of the platform collapsed. 

Compartmentalization of the structure (and maintenance of such compartmentalization) may contain or minimize fire spread ... 

Orloff, L., DeRis, J., Markstein, G. M.,Upward Turbulent Fire Spread and Burning of Fuel Surfaces", 15th Symposium (International) of Combustion, 1975. 

Fire Spread on Surfaces and Through Solid Media... 

FIRE SPREAD ON SURFACES AND THROUGH SOLID MEDIA... 

Since accidental fire spread mostly occurs under natural convection conditions within buildings and enclosures, some examples of configurations leading to opposed or wind-aided types of spread are illustrated in Figure 8.3. Flame spread calculations are difficult... 

Many fire spread problems can be formulated by the deceptively simple expression... 

Figure 8.20 Wind-aided fire spread through porous arrays as a function of wind speed [21]...

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