ABSTRACT
News stories pertaining to fires inevitably contain a phrase similar to “When the flames subsided …” Everyone knows what happened at that juncture: the fuel had run out because a fire had just consumed every bit of it, and there was nothing left to burn. A familiar saying known to Navy and USAF fighter pilots goes like this, “The only time you have too much fuel is when you’re on fire.” This clever adage is also sound advice for the facility manager of an industrial or storage warehouse. The analogy is that inside a facility without fuel, fire cannot burn. With an abundance of fuel, the potential exists for a fire to rage uncontrollably. The chance for a fire to begin, how quickly the fire spreads, and how destructive the fire can ultimately become, depend upon an informed and close examination of the fuel itself.
