Fire Safety Science Digital Archive

Some results of a survey of the fire-loads and layout of two modern office buildings are given. It is shown that for these buildings the average fire-load per unit floor area (fire-load density) is 20 kg/m^2 (4.1 lb/ft^2), and is independent of the size of room, and that in 95 per cent of the rooms the fire-load density is less than 59 kg/m^2 (12 lb/ft^2); these buildings would thus be regarded as having a low fire-load. The mean fire-load per unit window area is 55 kg/m^2 (11 lb/ft^2), and in 95 per cent of the rooms it is less than 147 kg/m^2 (30 lb/ft^2). On average the rooms are similar to those studied in recent experiments which indicate that fires in these rooms would be fire-load controlled.