The fire poses the most serious and most direct threat to the laboratory. A severe fire will cause a devastating and fatal blow to the laboratory's personal, property and data.

Main cause of laboratory fire

1.Open flame heating equipment causes fire

Heating equipment and appliances such as gas lamps, alcohol lamps or alcohol blowtorches, electric ovens, electric furnaces, electric soldering irons are often used in the laboratory, which increases the fire risk of the laboratory. During the heating process of the gas lamp, if the gas leaks, it is easy to form an explosive mixture with the air. Alcohol is volatile and flammable, and its vapor can explode in the air. If the electric oven runs for a long time, it is prone to control system failure, heat generation increases, and temperature rises, causing a fire.

2.Violation of the operating rules caused a fire

Typical operations such as distillation, reflux, extraction, recrystallization, and chemical reactions that are often performed in chemical laboratories are characterized by great danger. If the operator has no experience, does not prepare before work, is unskilled in operation or violates the operation rules, does not listen to dissuasion or guidance and operates without approval, etc., it is easy to induce fire and explosion.

3.Inflammable and explosive dangerous goods cause fire

In chemical experiments, the use of various chemical hazardous materials is extremely common and there are many types. These items are lively in nature and have poor stability; some are flammable, some are explosive, some are spontaneously combustible, and some are in contact with each other to catch fire or explode. In storage and use, a little care may cause Fire accident.

Laboratory fire protection

Fire fighting mainly takes measures from three aspects：

Control combustibles, control the material basis of combustion, and narrow the combustion range；

Isolate the air (combustion aid) to prevent the formation of combustion-supporting conditions；

Eliminate ignition sources and heat sources that stimulate combustion.

1.Cooling method

Spray and sprinkle with water to reduce the temperature of the burning substances. When it falls below the ignition point, the fire can be extinguished. Because water is the most convenient and cheapest to use, fire extinguishing is the most commonly used method.

2.Suffocation

Cover the combustion products with carbon dioxide, nitrogen, foam or asbestos cloth, non-combustible or difficult-combustible materials such as water-filled bedding, sacks or sand, so that the air and other oxidants cannot fully contact the combustible materials, so that the air in the combustion space When the oxygen content is reduced to below 16%, the fire can be extinguished.

3.Quarantine

Spread the flammable things near the fire to a place away from the fire source, which can limit the fire to the minimum range and prevent the fire from spreading, which can make the fire change from large to small until it is extinguished.

4.Suppression method (chemical interruption method)

Spray and cover flames with bromine-containing, halogenated alkane chemical fire extinguishing agents. This method is to suppress the burning chemical reaction process, take away the active substances in the combustion chain reaction, interrupt the combustion, and achieve the purpose of extinguishing.

Laboratory fire protection instructions

1. Adhere to the principle of "prevention first, supplemented by consumption", improve the fire prevention system, formulate fire prevention measures, and assign posts to people to implement one by one.

2. It is strictly forbidden to use electric stoves, electric ovens and other electric heating appliances for non-experimental work; those approved for experimental work must be located and used at fixed points, and no flammable materials should be stored.

3. The electric soldering iron used should be placed on a non-combustible support, and no combustible materials should be stacked around it.

4. All equipment with transformers and inductance coils must be placed on the incombustible base. The total power consumption of the electrical equipment started  at the same time in the experiment shall not exceed the rated load of the electrical facilities allocated to the room. It is not allowed to randomly connect and pull the wires.

5. To start all kinds of equipment, strict operating procedures must be followed; strict storage and use systems for flammable and explosive chemicals should not be paralyzed.

6. All fire-fighting facilities such as fire extinguishers must be kept intact and properly kept. It is strictly forbidden to use them for other purposes or to move casually.