What is a fire load?

Fire load, also called fire load, refers to the amount of flammable material and the amount of heat that can be generated by substance if it is ignited in the area. It is most often used to link to the amount of heat that can be generated by materials in a closed area such as a compartment or room. The fire load of the room or other area can be used to quantify the potential severity of the fire at this point, and thus is an important concept of fire safety, firefighting and construction. In the usual units of Imperial or the United States, this is given as British thermal units (BTU) on a square foot, while in metric units is in Kilojoules (kJ) per square meter. One BTU equals about 1055 jouls, or 1.055 kJ. BTU is formally defined as the amount of heat required to increase the temperature of 1 pound of water by means of a single degree Fahrenheit less than 1 atmosphere of pressure, which is roughly the average air pressure at the sea level.

The fire load of the room can be calculated in the usual units by multiplying the number of flammable materials in the room with an average BTU generated into a pound and then by distributing the result by a number of square feet in the room. The same procedure can be done by kilograms, kilojoules and square meters. Less precisely and more informally, this term may also apply to the amount or weight of flammable materials in the area, quantified as pounds per square foot or kilograms per square meter, although it is rough because it does not include the amount of heat generated by different materials. The fire load of the area may vary very much depending on what is stored there. For example, dry wood burning produces about 7,000 Btu per pound, while the burning pupane produces 15,000 per pound.

Knowledge of the fire load of rooms in the burning structure is important information for fire safety as it shows how destructive fires in different roomsCH or sections can be and gives an idea of ​​how likely the fire is spreading from one area to another. Firefighters use this information to identify the most vulnerable or most dangerous areas of burning buildings. It is also one consideration that takes into account when the building is designed. For example, concrete does not contribute to the load of fire because it does not burn, so it is often used to build rooms or buildings where highly flammable materials are maintained. Fire codes and building regulations often include limiting regulations, where and how highly flammable materials such as fuel can be stored because they contribute significantly to local fire loads and pose an increased risk of control if they are kept in fire measures that are not designed to deal with AMount of Heat.