Fire Behavior
What Fire Needs
Now try it
Put what you just watched into practice. The simulation opens right here on the page.
Interactive simulation
Wildfire
01
The Fire Triangle
Take away heat, fuel or oxygen and watch the fire go out.
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About this lesson
Why predicting fire behavior drives every decision on the fireline, the three sides of the fire triangle, how suppression breaks them, and the chain reaction that makes it a tetrahedron.
Key terms
Fire behavior: how a fire ignites, spreads and burns
Fire triangle: heat, fuel and oxygen: all three are needed to burn
Ignition temperature: the temperature at which fuel catches fire
Mineral soil: bare earth with nothing left to burn
Chain reaction: burning releases heat that keeps the fire burning
Fire tetrahedron: the triangle plus the chain reaction