Abstract: Ghosting fire is a unique fire behavior which usually occurs under specific conditions with low ventilation. A series of fire tests were conducted in a 1755 m3 closed compartment without vent to find out whether ghosting fires occur in compartments under no vent conditions. The results show that ghosting fires occurred in all the 1755 m3 fire tests when fuels boiled. The large amounts combustible gases produced by boiling and low oxygen entrained to flame zone result in redundant combustible gases flowing to somewhere far from the fuel zone, where the gases mix with oxygen and the ignition condition is reached, causing ghosting fires to occur. The travel distances of ghosting fires become longer as the pool position gets higher, while the beginning time and duration of ghosting fires with regard to the pool position do not simply increase or decrease.

Key words: pool fire, closed compartment, ghosting fire, mass loss rates