The purpose of this project was to determine the effectiveness of firefighter intervention using hand-held fire extinguishers on fires in 150- and 800-cubic-foot cargo containers. This test plan was undertaken following a fire in the main deck cargo compartment of a South African Airlines Boeing 747-244B (COMBI) on November 27, 1987. The airplane crashed into the Indian Ocean killing all occupants. A total of 27 tests were performed; 23 in the 150-cubic-foot cargo container series, and 4 in the 800-cubic-foot cargo container series. Three agents were tested--Halon 1211, Halon 1301, and 'loaded stream' water. Only the Halon 1211 agent was partially successful in extinguishing this type of Class A fire. Seven of the 23 fires were extinguished. The rigid cargo containers contained and controlled the test fires through oxygen starvation in 18 of 20 fire tests that were not extinguished.


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    Title :

    Effectiveness of Hand-Held Fire Extinguishers on Cargo Container Fires


    Contributors:
    L. Dickerson (author) / D. Blake (author)

    Publication date :

    1993


    Size :

    21 pages


    Type of media :

    Report


    Type of material :

    No indication


    Language :

    English