# Can fire happen in the absence of oxygen?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-fire-happen-in-the-absence-of-oxygen/376878>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [October 18, 2006, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-fire-happen-in-the-absence-of-oxygen/376878 "2006-10-18T02:27:13Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![motomoon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a9adbd/32.png) [@motomoon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/motomoon)\
**Post date:** [October 18, 2006, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-fire-happen-in-the-absence-of-oxygen/376878/1 "2006-10-18T02:27:13Z")

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Subject says it all, but can you have a fire condition without oxygen present?

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**Author:** ![Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Speaker_for_the_Dead)\
**Post date:** [October 18, 2006, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-fire-happen-in-the-absence-of-oxygen/376878/2 "2006-10-18T02:30:23Z")

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Well, according to [the first definition](http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/fire), no.

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**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\
**Post date:** [October 18, 2006, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-fire-happen-in-the-absence-of-oxygen/376878/3 "2006-10-18T02:49:07Z")

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Hydrogen will burn in fluorine, with a flame. [So will many other materials.](http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0080-4630(19520207)211%3A1104%3C110%3ATSOFSB%3E2.0.CO%3B2-V)  
Magnesium will burn in both nitrogen and carbon dioxide.

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**Author:** ![drachillix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/48db29/32.png) [@drachillix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drachillix)\
**Post date:** [October 18, 2006, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-fire-happen-in-the-absence-of-oxygen/376878/4 "2006-10-18T03:12:23Z")

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[QUOTE=motomoon]  
Subject says it all, but can you have a fire condition without oxygen present?  
[/QUOTE]

A fire is just a fairly fast and dramatic chemical reaction. Any fast exothermic reaction could produce similar phenomenon to what we call fire.