– How exactly does water put out a fire? Is it a smothering thing, or a chemical reaction?

Question

– How exactly does water put out a fire? Is it a smothering thing, or a chemical reaction?

In: Chemistry

Answer 1

Fire needs 3 things to survive: Heat, Fuel, and Oxygen. We call that the fire triangle. Remove any one of those from the fire and it cannot sustain itself. Water works well on most fires because it rapidly cools the fuels, so it really attacks 2 sides of the triangle. But there are fires that water is not good for, like electrical fires, and metal fires.