How do things “burn”?
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Oxygen is a molecule that reacts easily with a lot of other things, combining itself with other molecules and releasing energy as heat when it does so. The process is known as oxidization, or generally burning. The process requires a fairly high temperature to start, but since it produces heat it tends to sustain itself once started. This is loosely what we call “burning”, and a “fire” is really just seeing the effect of extreme heat.
It’s a question of how easily oxygen can intrude itself into existing molecules. Different molecules are more open to the idea of coming apart and re-assembling themselves with oxygen. Hydrogen, methane, and other hydrocarbons famously burn fairly easily. Many organic chemicals will burn at high enough temperatures. On the flip side, water doesn’t like the idea because it’s essentially already the result of burning, since hydrogen + oxygen => water which was a burning process.
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