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A flash fire is an unexpected, sudden intense fire caused by ignition of flammable solids, liquids or their vapors, gases, or dust. It is characterized by high-temperature, short-duration, considerable shock waves, and a rapidly moving flame front, which can be a combustion explosion, spreading with unusual speed, like the flame racing across the surface of a flammable liquid, or through a cloud of dust or gas.
Flash fires may occur in environments where fuel, typically flammable gas, vapors, or dust, is mixed with air in concentration range suitable for combustion. CGSB defines its duration to 3 seconds or less.
In flash-fire explosions, the flame spreads in subsonic velocity, so the overpressure damage is usually negligible and the bulk of the damage comes from the thermal radiation and secondary fires.
Clothing made of fire-retardant materials (eg. Nomex) limits the injury caused by flash fires to the unprotected body areas. Even normal clothing can provide partial protection.
Flash Fire Defined CGSB 155.20-2000 and NFPA 2113
“A rapidly moving flame front which can be a combustion explosion. Flash fire may occur in an environment where fuel and air become mixed in adequate concentrations to combust...flash fire has a heat flux of approximately 84 kW/m2 for relatively short periods of time, typically less than 3 seconds.”
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"Flash fire"