Fire Safety Science Digital Archive

Fire tests involving liquid fuels (AVGAS and white spirit), frying oil, wood and clothing have been carried out to evaluate the effectiveness of three different sizes of asbestos blankets. With the AVGAS and white spirit the blankets were tested against fires of increasing size according to the CEN WG/70 Series. With frying oil the blankets were tested against burning oil, (1B, 2B, 3B, and 5B) with oil heated above the spontaneous ignition temperature. Wooden cribs were used for assessing the performance of the blankets against cellulosic type fires and burning cloth used to simulate a clothing fire. The work has shown that the AVGAS tests provide a simple and effective means of assessing the 'rating' of the blankets but additional tests involving frying oil, wood and clothing are necessary to ensure that the blankets are suitable for general applications of this kind. The results should provide a useful means of assessing the performance of new types of blankets in comparison with the asbestos types.