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Fire Technology, 40, 295–296, 2004 2004 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Manufactured in The United States.
BOOK REVIEW Ignition Handbook Vytenis Babrauskas, Published by: Fire Science Publishers, Issaquah WA, USA, ISBN: 0-9728111-3-3. Hardcover, 1116 pages, List price $198.00 (http://www.doctorfire.com/fsp index.html) and Co-published by: The Society of Fire Protection Engineers (www.sfpe.org)
This is a remarkable book and a major contribution to fire investigation. Vyto Babrauskas has written a book that is comprehensive and thorough. While he does not shy away from technical treatments, the book has a vast amount of information of value to any fire investigator. The book cites thousands of technical papers and he has successfully synthesized this vast literature in a way that makes the knowledge accessible to a broad audience. A good example of this is his section on wood ignition. He brings together information from dozens of sources and develops a coherent picture of wood ignition that was previously unavailable. This is a must buy book for anyone who takes fire investigation or fire science seriously. The Handbook is 1116 pages set in a two column, 8.5 × 11 format. The book includes 627 black-and-white figures, 447 tables, and 140 color plates. The book is divided into two main sections. The first section takes a topical, structured approach to ignition phenomena; including ignition of gases, dusts, liquids, solids, elements, and reactive substances. A chapter is dedicated to the general topic of self-heating and a chapter is devoted to the characterization of ignition sources. The second section is essentially an “encyclopedia of ignition,” including alphabetically-arranged narrative descriptions of ignition properties and hazards for substances ranging from “Accelerants in incendiary fires” to “Zirconium.” The final chapter contains database tables giving information on 473 pure chemical compounds and over 500 commercial or natural products, including such substances as dusts, fuels, lubricants, plastics, and woods. The approach used in the handbook is scholarly, yet the book is practical and applicationsoriented. One might imagine that in an undertaking of this size, the text would be limited to restatement of the contents of individual papers in a rote fashion without critical thinking. This is not what has been done at all! The material contained in the thousands of references is critically evaluated, synthesized, and distilled into a coherent view of ignition phenomena. The preface states that theory is included in the book only if it leads to conceptual understanding of the problem or it provides a framework for making useful, practical calculations. This approach well serves the fire investigation community by excluding unusable theoretical treatments, but maintains a scientific approach to ignition phenomena. Fire investigators need not be intimidated by the handbook. While there may be sections that the less mathematically oriented reader may skip over on the first reading, there is a wealth of practical, applicable, and conceptually enlightening material that is accessible
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to any reader. In fact, theoretical material is purposefully isolated from more descriptive and/or practical materials to make the book more accessible to less theoretically inclined readers. At the risk of undervaluing the solid and well written text, you can learn a lot from just looking at the over 1000 graphics in the book. This is the perfect type of book in the sense that you can get a lot from it with relatively little effort, but those who invest further effort will be rewarded. The Ignition Handbook is not a fire investigation handbook or guide. As such it complements existing fire investigation books and guides. At the same time, the Ignition Handbook is a significant resource to any fire investigator who seeks to identify the cause and origin of fires. Similarly, it is not a fire prevention handbook, but it is an invaluable resource for those involved in fire prevention activities. One minor annoyance with the book is the lack of reference citations in the figure captions. One needs to go to the text where the figure is called out to find the source of the figure content. A CD with excel spreadsheets of data from the book is available. The $60 CD adds little to the book, since the files simply list the data already in the book tables. I was unable to identify any real use for the CD contents. The CD is a convenient way to take the data tables into the field via a laptop. In this regard, it would be good for the entire volume to be available electronically. I highly recommend this book to all fire investigators, fire prevention officers, fire protection engineers, and fire scientists. At the time of this writing, a special introductory price of $140 was available on the Fire Science Publishers website (http://www.doctorfire. com/fsp index.html). It is also available at the SFPE website store at $198. ($178 for SFPE members). Craig L. Beyler, Ph.D. Technical Director Hughes Associates, Inc.
