How can air compressed foam extinguish a fire??

Question

I'm looking for an answer that sounds more scientific and uses chemistry type terms, because, quite frankly, i need it for my chemistry paper. Thanks

Answer 1

By suffocating it. Fire requires fuel and air to sustain combustion. Remove either element and you halt the combustive process.

Sorry no more technical terminology, but hope this helps anyway.

Best to you.

Answer 2

It extinguishes the flame by cutting off the supply of oxygen.

In the event of an oil based fire, it is much better than trying to use water, because the water is heavier than oil (higher density) and the oil fire will float on top of the waer, rendering it inefective. The foam will float on the oil and extinguish as described above.