Information
The following information was summarised from various sources for your convenience.
Fire is the rapid oxidation of a material in the chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction products. The fire can be extinguished by any of the following:
In contrast, fire is intensified by increasing the overall rate of combustion. Typical temperatures of fires and flames
The temperature of flames with carbon particles emitting light can be assessed by their color:
The fossil record of fire first appears with the establishment of a land-based flora in the Middle Ordovician period, 470 million years ago, permitting the accumulation of oxygen in the atmosphere as never before, as the new hordes of land plants pumped it out as a waste product. Fire has also been used for centuries as a method of torture and execution, as evidenced by death by burning as well as torture devices such as the iron boot which could be filled with water, oil, or even lead and then heated over an open fire to the agony of the wearer. These fires were typically controlled burns or "cool fires", as opposed to uncontrolled "hot fires" which damage the soil. Hunter-gatherer groups around the world have been noted as using grass and forest fires to injure their enemies and destroy their ability to find food, so it can be assumed that fire has been used in warfare for as long as humans have had the knowledge to control it. In the latter war, incendiary bombs were used by Axis and Allies alike, notably on Tokyo, Rotterdam, London, Hamburg and, notoriously, at Dresden, in the latter two cases firestorms were deliberately caused in which a ring of fire surrounding each city was drawn inward by an updraft caused by a central cluster of fires. Protection and prevention
Fire fighting services are provided in most developed areas to extinguish or contain uncontrolled fires. Trained firefighters use fire apparatus, water supply resources such as water mains and fire hydrants or they might use A and B class foam depending on what is feeding the fire. Fire prevention also includes education to teach people how to avoid causing fires. Model building codes require passive fire protection and active fire protection systems to minimize damage resulting from a fire. The most common form of active fire protection is fire sprinklers.
moebuildingcontrol.co.uk - UK Guidance on fire safety codes and fire engineering