Extinction of Petrol Fires by Methyl Iodide

Abstract

THE distressing and increasingly frequent incidence of fatal fires in tankers, aeroplanes and other petrol-using machines, and in factories and laboratories employing fuels and inflammable solvents, has repeatedly directed attention to the need for a quick quenching agent. In such straits, so long as they contain carbon tetrachloride, the brass squirts so universally carried are of less use than mascots. This substance will not extinguish petrol fires. At best, it may localize the combustion. It yields stifling clouds of black soot and twice its own vapour-volume of chlorine. It is itself toxic.