Enhancing Fire Resistance of Scots Pine and Turkish Fir Woods: A Comparative Study of Firetex and Boric Acid Treatments

Year 2025, Volume: 1 Issue: 1, 10 - 17, 31.07.2025

Osman Emre Özkan , Haci İsmail Kesik , Hakan Aydoğan , Elif Maraz

Abstract

Wood material is disadvantageous due to its flammable properties. Various fire-retardant chemical substances are used to eliminate this disadvantage. In this study, Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) and Turkish fir (Abies nordmanniana subsp. bornmuelleriana) woods were impregnated with fire-retardant chemicals firetex and boric acid, and combustion experiments were carried out according to ASTM-E 69-02 standard. As a result, both mass loss and carbon monoxide (CO) emissions were significantly reduced in fire-retardant treated samples compared to untreated control samples. Among the treatments, Firetex showed the highest performance in increasing fire resistance by minimizing combustion-induced mass loss and toxic gas emission. The combination of Firetex with boric acid also showed effective results closely following Firetex alone, whereas boric acid alone provided moderate protection. In contrast, untreated control samples showed the most severe mass loss and highest gas emissions during combustion. These findings demonstrated that fire-retardant impregnation plays a significant role in improving the fire performance of wood materials in both tree species. Therefore, it is recommended to apply fire-retardant impregnation in wooden structures.

Keywords

Firetex , boric acid , wood impregnation , fire tube test

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