Introduction
The fire blanket forms a part of the fire fighting equipment for small fires. It comes in very handy, when a small fire is detected at the earlier stage and it can be put off immediately. It extinguishes the fire by the process of smothering which means cutting off the air supply.
A fire blanket is a safety device designed to extinguish small fires. It consists of a sheet of fire retardant material which is placed over a fire in order to smother it.
Fire blankets, for use in ship, are often made of wool (sometimes treated with a flame retardant fluid).
These blankets are usually mounted in vertical quick-release cabinets so that they can be easily pulled out and wrapped round a person whose clothes are on fire or placed over fire in order to smother it.
Some older fire blankets were made of woven asbestos fibre and are not NFPA rated. This can pose a hazard during the decommissioning of old equipment.
A fire blanket is extremely useful in a galley.