PORTABLE WATER MIST FIRE EXTINGUISHERS AS AN ALTERNATIVE FOR HALON 1211

The National Research Council of Canada, with Fountain Fire Protection, Inc., has carried out a series of full-scale fire tests to investigate the capability and limitation of portable water mist extinguishers as an alternative for Halon 121 1 in suppressing various types of fires. The types of fires used in the tests included cooking oils, n-heptanes, diesel fuels, and wood cribs. The impact of key water mist character- istics, such as flow rate, spray angle and droplet size, discharge pressures, nozzle discharge angles, as well as the types of nozzles on fire suppression, was studied. Based on this study, a prototype water mist fire extinguisher for multi-purpose fire protection was developed for use on fires associated with cooking oils, woods, papers, flammable fuels, and electrical equipment.