Philosophy of Fire and Its Control
An understanding of the nature of fire and the necessary components to make it happened is a pre-requisite to know in order to fight, control and eliminate fire whenever it occurs. By understanding the mechanism of how a fire is started, the kind of fire suppression system to use to combat it effectively is chosen. The design of the fire suppressant system is done making use of such theory and knowledge.
 
Theory of a Basic Fire System
According to NFPA Fire Protection Handbook (2003, pg. 2-83), ‘fire’ or ‘combustion’ is defined as a chemical reaction of a fuel (combustible materials) in the presence of oxygen and heat. It is an exothermic (releases heat) reaction where chemical energy trapped in the original molecules of the fuel is converted to thermal energy. The combustion process is observed as occurring in two modes; the flaming type and the flameless surface type. Figure 1, given below, illustrates the elements involve in the various combustion processes.
  
Fundamental of Fire Control
Based on the ‘Fire Triangle’ and/or ‘Fire Tetrahedron’, fire can be extinguished by simply removing any of the components, i.e., ‘Fuel’, ‘Oxygen’, ‘Temperature (Heat)’ or ‘Uninhibited Chain Reaction’.

Basic Fire System

Figure 1
Source: NFPA (2003), ‘FIRE PROTECTION HANDBOOK’, pg. 2-83.