Fire behavior of styrofoam

Styrofoam burns like e.g.wood. For the purpose of construction, styrofoam is made selfextinguishing.

No toxic vapours arise on burning, as you can take from the following table:

	Gaseous decomposition products when smoldering or burning polystyrene compared to reference building materials.
		Fire composition in ppm at test temperature
Sample under test	Components of the fire gases	300 °C	400 °C	500 °C	600 °C
Styrofoam
Styrofoam	Carbon monoxyde	10 +`*`	50 +`*`	500 +`*`	1,000 `**`
	Monostyrene	50	100	500	50
	Other aromatics	Traces	20	20	10
	Hydrogen bromide	10	15	13	11
Spruce
Spruce	Carbon monoxyde	400 `*`	6,000 `**`	12,000 `**`	15,000 `**`
Spruce	Aromatics	-	-	-	300
Wood fibre insulation boards
Wood fibre insulation boards	Carbon monoxide	14,000 `**`	24,000 `**`	59,000 `**`	69,000 `**`
Wood fibre insulation boards	Aromatics	Traces	300	300	1,000
Expanded cork
Expanded cork	Carbon monoxide	1,000 `*`	3,000 `**`	15,000 `**`	29,000 `**`
Expanded cork	Aromatics	Traces	200	1,000	1,000
	+ Pyrolytic (Thermal) decomposition `` Smouldering Fire `*` Flaming fire - Not measured

Test conditions according to DIN 53 436 - Generation of thermal decomposition products from materials with air supply and their toxicological test air supply 100 l/h
Sample size in mm: 300 x 15 x 10
ppm = parts per million by volume

Table reprinted with the kind permission of the German IVH Industrieverband Hartschaum e.v. (Heidelberg)

The most boring video in the world!

Fire test with a StyroStone wall.

First, only a few square centimeters of polystyrene melt away - and then nothing else happens.

Small building for pool equipment with polystyrene ceiling
The fire occurred in 2004 and extinguished itself.
The photos were taken for the homeowner's insurance company and are not of the best quality. We apologize, but we think they show what you need to see.

You can see that the flames burned the polystyrene, but where the flames didn't reach, nothing else burned. This means it's difficult to ignite.
In the background you can see the swimming pool wall – made of Styro Stones, of course. The building itself doesn't require insulation and is constructed with simple concrete blocks.

Here it is more clearly visible that the flame-resistant polystyrene prevented the fire from spreading and caused it to extinguish itself.

Here in the background you can also see the wall of the pool made of polystyrene blocks and that the ceiling did not catch fire.

A real fire

This video from an American authority shows a room fire resulting from a fire at the Christmas tree.
It would only take seconds - and you would suffocate.
Incidentally, burning polystyrene does not produce any toxic fumes!

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