In article ,
says...

Tim Wescott wrote:


I thought it was pure oxygen at high pressure or in liquid form that was
so very dangerous -- does this hold for oxygen at 40 psi?

LOX is the worst, as it is insanely concentrated. But, even pure
O2 at STP is pretty dangerous stuff. They've had some horrible fires
in operating rooms where pure oxygen the patient was breathing was allowed
to spill on surgical drapes and such and got ignited possibly by a
static discharge. You can't put that kind of fire out with a fire
extinguisher until all the oxygen is used up. The Air Force did some
testing just after WW-II to make sure pilots could operate long-term
while breathing pure O2. They had a chamber with a bunch of guys living in
pure O2, and had a fire when a guy changed a burned-out light bulb.
When the porcelain light socket started dripping flaming porcelain onto an
asbestos fire blanket and the asbestos caught on fire, they popped the door
open and escaped.

Nice story. Both porcelain and asbestos are fully oxidized--they will
not burn in oxygen--neither will glass--all are silicon dioxide. If you
don't believe me, take an oxyacetylene torch to a coke bottle and see if
you can light it. The news story I found doesn't mention either
asbestos or porcelain--it mentions that their clothing caught fire,
which is perfectly reasonable if it wasn't made from a fireproof
material. It also says that they were out 40 seconds after the fire
started and that they escaped by breaking a port with a hammer.
http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1873&dat=19670204
&id=Z28eAAAAIBAJ&sjid=o8kEAAAAIBAJ&pg=791,11880 11

The Apollo 11 fire is another case, of course, and they couldn't get
out
in time.

Jon