212 FIRE PREVENTION IN THE HOME 



will not burn, but which will clean just as well as gasoline. 

 These can be bought at the drug store. They are safe. 

 Use them. 



Extinguishing fires. Since a fire requires oxygen, 

 fuel, and a temperature above the kindling point, if you 

 deprive a fire of any one of these three, it will be extin- 

 guished. There are, then, three possible ways to put out 

 a fire : by smothering, by removing the fuel, and by 

 cooling. 



Smothering. Smothering is the process of keeping oxy- 

 gen of the air away from the burning substance. With 

 the exception of a few substances smothering is an effec- 

 tive way of extinguishing a small fire. A woolen blanket, 

 rug, or coat is better than one made of cotton because it 

 is less inflammable. The blanket is much more effective 

 wet than dry, but it may be used dry. Another way to 

 smother a flame is by setting free a non-combustible gas 

 about the flame which will push the air away and ex- 

 tinguish the fire. This is sometimes done with the follow- 

 ing chemicals : carbon dioxide, ammonia, carbon tetra- 

 chloride, and water in the form of steam. Substances 

 like celluloid, and explosives which contain sufficient 

 oxygen for combustion, cannot be extinguished in this 

 way. 



Removing fuel. It is often possible to remove the 

 combustible material from the vicinity of the flame and 

 thus extinguish it in a short time. Covering combustible 

 material by banking with sand and trenching to remove 

 fuel are practiced in brush and grass fires. Back firing in 

 forest fires utilizes the principle of fuel removal, as does the 

 dynamiting of buildings in the path of the fire in a large 

 city conflagration. ^ 



