Extinction by smothering, cooling and oxygen starvation

• By removing potential fuel from the neighbourhood of the fire. For example, by: draining fuel from burning oil tanks; working out cargo at a ship fire; cutting trenches or creating fire breaks in, for example, peat, heath and forest fires, demolishing buildings to create a fire stop; and counter-burning in forest fires. • By removing the fire from the mass of combustible material - for instance, pulling apart a burning haystack or thatched roof. • By dividing the burning material into smaller fires which may be left to burn out or which can be extinguished more easily by other means. The beating out of a heath fire owes much of its effectiveness to this.

to try to prevent fresh air from reaching the to the seat of the fire and so to allow the combustion to reduce the oxygen content in the confined atmosphere until it extinguishes itself. This is less effective where, as in the case of celluloid, the burning material contains within itself in a chemically combined form the oxygen it requires for combustion battening down ships hold persons clothing alight sand on metal fire capping oil well and FOAM

foam CO2 dry powder (though it inhibits as well)

If the rate at which heat is generated by combustion is less than the rate at which it is lost from the burning material, burning will not continue. So. to extinguish a fire by cooling, the rate at which heat energy is lost from the burning material must be increased by removing some of the heat energy. This reduces the temperature of the burning mass, reducing the heat release rate. Eventually, the rate at which heat is lost from the fire may be greater than the rate of heat production and the fire will die away.

When the heat of a fire is considerable, as in its early stages, the steam formed will not be visible, but as the temperature falls the steam will condense above the fire. This is widely recognised by experienced fire-fighters as a sign that a fire is being brought under control