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)

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