Construction Of Fire Loads

864 Words2 Pages

Fire can completely demolish buildings but what keeps the fire burning long enough to destroy the building? The answer to that question would be the fire load of the building. The term fire load is defined as the weight of combustible contents per unit floor area (Gross, 1977). The fire load of a building includes anything that is combustible such as finishes, furniture, building materials, etc. These materials are divided into two categories movable contents and interior and exterior finishes. Two types of fire loads must be determined for every building and they are the localized and distributed fire loads. The localized fire load shall be determined to reflect concentrations of combustible material that have the potential to pose a more …show more content…

Having an accurate calculated fire load makes code compliance with the Authority Having Jurisdiction (AHJ) easier. The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) states that the code gives the minimum requirements necessary to establish a reasonable level of fire and life safety, and property protection (Wolin, 2015). Fire load has to be calculated to insure that every building meets the minimum requirements to preserve life safety. All combustible materials included in the building must be accounted for. Another advantage to knowing the fire load helps to make it easier to plan the layout of the building. When planning the building one of the key components is the means of egress. NFPA States that an exit or mean of egress must be separated from other parts of the building (Wolin 2015). The means of egress needs to have as little of a fire load as possible because it will be the exit route for the people inside in case of a fire. Another advantage to knowing the fire load is it can play a role into determining the flow and direction of a fire if the situation does occur. The fire load helps the firefighters to figure out what their Needed Fire Flow (NFF) in gallons per min (gpm) so that they can attempt to successfully fight the fire and save the building while protecting the lives of the citizens inside. There are …show more content…

Standards for Determination of Fire Loads for Use in Structural Fire Protection. NFPA, 1-36. Retrieved February 1, 2016, from http://www.nfpa.org/codes-and-standards/document-information-pages?mode=code&code=557

Gross, D. (1977). Measurements of Fire Load and Calculations of Fire Severity. Wood and Fiber, 72-85. Retrieved February 09, 2016, from http://wfs.swst.org/index.php/wfs/article/viewFile/1821/1821

Kumar, S. (1997). Fire Loads in Office Buildings. Journal of Structural Engineering, 365-368. Retrieved January 29, 2016.

Martin, A. (2011, October 24). Asbestos – and fire retardants. Retrieved February 9, 2016, from https://oecotextiles.wordpress.com/2011/10/24/asbestos-and-fire-retardants/

Vestal, J. N., & Bridge, E. A. (2010, October 1). A QUANTITATIVE APPROACH TO SELECTING NOZZLE FLOW RATE AND STREAM. Retrieved February 9, 2016, from http://www.fireengineering.com/articles/print/volume-163/issue-10/features/a-quantitative-approach-to-selecting-nozzle-flow-rate-and-stream-part-1.html

Wolin, S. D. (2015). Fire Code. NFPA, 9-16. Retrieved February 1, 2016, from

More about Construction Of Fire Loads

Open Document