Goaf fires are prevalent in underground coal mines and have drawn increasing public attention. Inhibition foam is recognized as an efficient means of fire extinguishment in a huge volume of porous material. A verisimilar goaf platform setup and a foam preparation system were developed. Experimental results show that increasing the gas/liquid ratio improves the foam stack effect. The optimum gas/liquid ratio and the ratio of infusion pipe length and cooling zone length are suggested for a practical application. The goaf interior pressure test indicates that the air leakage is controlled effectively by the inhibition foam. A perforated pipe will be superior to the standard one for a practical application due to its better diffusivity and lower infusion pressure. (C) 2018 Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.