Portable fire extinguishers for cooking oil fires. Literature survey

During the last years there has been a considerable increase in the number of fast food restaurants in this country. Large amounts of heated cooking oils are in use in the kitchens of these restaurants, which upon ignition may cause serious fires. This publication studies the prevalence of cooking oil fires in Finland and Canada based on fire statistics. The fire technical temperatures of cooking oils leading to fires as well as the chemical extinguishing mechanisms of extinguishing media used in portable fire extinguishers are studied. ABC class extinguishing powders and carbon dioxide have proved to be unsuitable for extinguishing cooking oil fires. BC class powders are slightly more suitable. Extinguishing foams and liquid extinguishing media based on citrates or acetates seem to be the most appropriate up to present. The F class designation is being adopted in new standards for portable fire extinguishers being prepared by both CEN and ISO. The publication also presents the test standard for portable fire extinguishers of class F being used in the United Kingdom as well as the draft test standards of ISO and DIN. I addition to these there are fire protection standards for kitchens available at least in the United States, Canada and Australia and for marine applications an international ISO standard has been prepared. Most European countries lack regulations concerning F class fires as well as test standards for portable fire extinguishers of class F.