Fire Safety Science Digital Archive

Exfoliated vermiculite was tried first time at the Fire Research Laboratory of the Central Building Research Institute, Roorkee (India) for extinguishment of flamable liquid fires. Five series of experiments were conducted using exfoliated vermiculite as an extinguishant varying petrol layer thickness, preburn time, ullage and size of fire. It was found that 16 cm of exfoliated vermiculite thickness on top of flammable liquid is required for extinguishment of fires. The material was tried up to 5 sq m petrol and kerosene liquid fires using very simple but automatic extinguishment technique. The vermiculite in sealed polyethylene bags was kept immersed in kerosene oil for three years to see the effect of liquid on it. Thus a new particulate extinguishant has been developed for the first time to extinguish any type of flammable liquid fires. An Indian patent for the same was applied on 26th April, 1975 and was granted on 11th February, 1978 (No.143, 818).