Danger in the kitchen: Can wheat flour explode and cause a fire? emerges

Few people who love cooking know, but one of the most used ingredients in home cooking is actually an extremely flammable and explosive element: wheat flour. Anyone who sees the clear and seemingly harmless substance, which is often hidden next to the stove, has no idea about its high destructive power.

Logically, The amount of flour you have in your pantry is extremely unlikely to catch fire.

However, when dispersed in high concentrations in air, These fine particles become a flammable mixture that can explode when set on fire. The shock wave and smoke can cause serious injury or even death. This occurs not only in flour, but also in any fine particulate solid material that poses a risk of fire or explosion when suspended in the air.

What causes flour dust explosion?

flour explosions a subtype of accidents known as combustible dust explosionsIt causes rapid combustion of fine particles in the presence of an ignition source. When it comes to content, in addition to the basic conditions of any fire (fuel, oxidizing agent (oxygen) and heat), there is also confinement and dispersion.

Fuel characteristics are common to all carbs. These energetic organic molecules burn. For example, pure sugar, when heated to high temperatures, produces syrup or caramel, depending on the intensity of combustion. but if the process continues it produces flames.

Since the surface area/mass ratio increases when suspended in the air, oxygen surrounds the flour grains, which burn faster when they become smaller. In this state of high oxygenation, a small spark of heat is sufficient to ignite the particles. This spark may be caused by friction during the grinding process.

How to process flour properly?

In industrial environments, especially those with high post-fuel Basic fire control measures include:

• Special vacuum cleaners to remove excess dust.
• Strict monitoring of dust residues in hard-to-reach places.
• Strict controls on open flames and sources of static electricity.

It is almost impossible for a fire or flour dust explosion to occur at home unless, in a fit of madness, you decide to toss a few bags of flour into the air and then light a match.

As crazy as a hypothetical attitude like this This is misinformation that some people are spreading about flour on social media.: according to these articles, in the event of a fire, you can replace these dry fire extinguishers (ABC type) by simply throwing wheat flour on the flames. As you can see, this is equivalent to trying to extinguish a fire with gasoline!

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