 Fire load

 Fire resisting properties of building materials

 Fire extinguishing methods
 Fireproof construction methods

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 How much material in a building – how well it will burn
 Fire load refers to the amount of heat liberated in kilo joules per square
meter (kJ/m^2) of floor area of any compartment by the combustion of the
contents of the building including its own combustible part.
 Fire load = (M x C)/A
M- mass of combustibles (kg)
C- calorific value (kJ/kg)
A- floor area (sq.m)

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 Furniture
 Electrical appliances
 Fabric
 Combustible Building
materials

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 It is calculated as a safety measure.
 Types of loads:
(i) live load - movable , changing loads (furniture , etc.)
(ii) dead load - permanent load (building components)
 Fire load classification:
1.Low fire load( up to 2,75,000 kcal/m^2 ) o Select a room

o Take the dimensions (length,

-preferred for domestic buildings, houses,
width , etc.) and calculate the
restaurants, schools, hospitals, etc. area.
2.Moderate fire load( 2,75,000 to 5,50,000 kcal/m^2) o List all the combustible
materials and measure the
-preferred in retail shops, emporium bazaars, weight.
factories, etc.
o Multiply it with respective
3.High fire load(above 5,50,000 to 11,00,000 kcal/m^2) calorific values.
(ex:wood18kJ/kg,plastic,22kJ/k
-preferred in godowns and similar buildings used g,paper-17kJ/kg,textile-
for bulk storage. 19kJ/kg, etc.).

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 Properties of ideal fire resisting materials:
1.should not disintegrate under the effect of great heat.
2.the expansion of the material due to heat should not cause instability in the
structure.
3.The contraction on fire extinguishing (sudden cooling) should not be rapid.

 With respect to affect of fire, materials are classified into two:

I. Combustible :During fire, combine exothermically with oxygen, gives rise to
flame. Ex: wood and wood products, straw board, etc.
II. Non-combustible : Decomposed by heat (absorbs the heat),do not contribute
to the growth of fire. Ex: stone, bricks, concrete, clay products, glass, etc.
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 A non-combustible building material and a bad
conductor of heat
 However it is a bad fire-resisting material since it is
liable to disintegrate into small pieces when heated and
suddenly cooled, giving rise to failure of structure.
 Granite, on exposure to severe heat, explodes and
disintegrates.
 Lime stone is s worst, since it is easily crumbled even
under ordinary fire.
 Sand stone of compact composition(fine grained) can,
however, stand the exposure to moderate fire without
serious cracks.
 In general, the use of stone in a fire-resisting
construction should be restricted to a minimum. 8
 Brick is a poor conductor of heat.
 First class bricks moulded from a good clay
can stand exposure to fire for a
considerable length of time, up to
temperatures of about 1200°C.
 Brick masonry construction, with good
mortar and better workmanship, is the most
suitable for safeguarding the structure
against fire hazards.

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 The behaviour of concrete during exposure to heat varies with the nature of
coarse aggregate and its density, and the quality of cement.
 It also depends upon the position of steel in concrete. Aggregates expand on
heating while ordinary cement shrinks on heating.
 These two opposite actions may lead to spalling of the concrete surface.
 Aggregates obtained from igneous rocks containing higher calcareous
content, tend to crack more while the aggregate like foamed slag, cinder and
bricks are better.
 The cracks formed in concrete generally extend to a depth of about 25 mm.
Hence reinforced concrete fire-resistant construction should have greater
cover.
 In general, concrete offers much higher resistance to fire than any other
building material.
 Reinforced concrete structures can withstand fire lasting for several
temperature of 1000°C without serious damage. 10
 Formed by combining fibrous asbestos with Portland
cement.
 Low coefficient of expansion, has property of
incombustibility.
 Great fire resistance.
 Largely used for construction of fire resistant walls,
roofs, etc. also used as protective covering of
structural members.

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 Non combustible, very low fire
resistance (good conductor of heat).
 During fire, it gets heated very soon
and loses its tensile strength rapidly.
 Unprotected steel beam sags and
unprotected columns or struts buckle
resulting in collapsing of structures.
 It is essential to protect the structural
steel members with some coverings of
insulated materials like brick,
terracotta, concrete, etc.

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 Poor conductor of heat, less thermal
expansion.
 On heating followed by sudden cooling, it
forms cracks.
 Cracks can be minimised if reinforced with
steel wired netting. The wires holds the
cracked portion in position.
 Reinforced glass is more fire resistant, has
higher melting point.
 Commonly used for fire resisting doors and
windows.

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 Combustible material, ignites and gets rapidly
destroyed during fire.
 Using thick section introduce properties like
insulation and slow burning.
 When exposed to fire, surface gets charred and this
surface acts as protective coating to the inner portion.
 Gets dehydrated under continued exposure to fire
(T>500°C), gives rise to combustible volatile gases
which readily catch fire.
 Coating timber with chemicals like ammonium
phosphate and sulphate, borax and boric acid, zinc
chloride or painting it with asbestos or ferrous oxide
paints(oil paints or varnish- catches fire) might help
resisting fire.
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 Very good conductor of heat.

 Poor fire resisting properties.

 Its use should be restricted to only those

structures which have very low fire risks.

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 Non combustible.

 Should be used to protect walls and ceilings against fire risks.

 Cement plaster is better than lime plaster since the latter is likely to
be during fire.

 Fire resistance can be increased by using it in thick layers or

reinforcing it with metal laths.

 Gypsum plaster, when used over structural steel members, make

them better fire resistant.
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 The key is to construct a building in which a fire would take effect slowly, allowing
the occupants plenty of time to escape, and emergency responders time to arrive on
the scene. This is also why materials themselves are rated in respect to how long it
would take fire to affect their structural abilities.
 The following aspects must be considered in the process of fireproof construction:
(i) walls and columns
(ii) floors and roofs
(iii) wall openings
(iv) escape elements
(v) strong room 17

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 Should be made of thicker section so that they
can resist fire for a longer time and can also act
as a barrier to adjoining areas.
 In the construction of walls ,bricks are preferred
to stones.
 If walls are made of stones, granite and
limestone should be avoided.
 In the case of building with framed structure,
R.C.C. should be preferred to steel. If steel is
used , the structural components should be
properly embedded into concrete, terracotta,
brick, gypsum plaster board or any other
suitable material.

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 If the framework is of R.C.C., thicker cover should be
used so that the members can resist fire for a longer
time.
 It is recommended to use 40 to 50mm cover for
columns, 35 to 40mm cover for beams and long span
Reinforced Hollow
slabs and 25mm for short span slabs. concrete block
brickwork
 Partition walls should be of fire resistant materials
such as R.C.C. reinforced brick work, hollow concrete
blocks, burnt clay tiles, reinforced glass, asbestos
cement boards or metal laths covered with cement
plaster.
Metal lath
 Cavity wall construction has better fire resistance.
 All walls should be plastered with fire resistive
mortar.

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 Slab roof is preferred to sloping or pitched roofs.
 The floor should be either of R.C.C. or of hollow tile
ribbed floor or of concrete jack arch floor with steel
joists embedded in concrete.
 If the floor is made of timber, thicker joists at a greater
Hollow ribbed slabs
spacing must be used and fire barriers should be
provided at suitable intervals.
 The flooring materials like concrete tiles, ceramic tiles,
bricks etc. are more suitable for fire resistance.
 If cast iron, wrought iron, cork carpet, rubber tiles etc.
are to be used, these should be protected by a covering
of insulated materials like ceramic tiles, plaster, Concrete jack arch floor
terracotta, bricks, etc.

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 Serves as a mean of escape.
 Doors and windows should be made of steel.
 Wire-glass panels are preferred for windows.
Wired glass panels
 Rolling shutter doors should be used for garages,
godowns, shops, etc.
 In case of timber doors, minimum thickness of door
leaf should be 4cm and that of door frame should be
8 to 10cm.
 All escape doors should be such as to provide free
circulation to persons in lobbies, corridors, stairs,
etc. and should be made of fire proofing material.
Rolling shutter

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 All escape elements, such as stair cases, corridors,
lobbies, entrances, etc. should be constructed of fire
resistant materials.
 They should be well separated from the rest of the
building.
 Staircases should be located next to the outer wall
and should be accessible from any floor in the
direction of flow towards the exits.
 The lift shafts connecting various floors should be
surrounded with the enclosure walls of fire resisting
materials.
 Lift shafts should be vented from top to permit escape
of smoke and hot gases.
 An emergency ladder should be provided (at least
90cm wide),made of fire resistant materials. 22
 Useful in case of safe deposit vaults in banks.

 The walls, floors and ceilings of a strong room are made of at least 30 cm thick
cement concrete.

 Doors and windows are well anchored to concrete walls by large number of
steel hold fasts longer in length.

 Windows and ventilators should be covered by special grills made of 20 mm

steel square bars. These grills should be well fixed by means of long steel hold
fasts.

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FIRE EXTINGUISHING METHODS

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Manual fire extinguishing equipment:
 These devices are useful for extinguishing fire as soon
as it starts.
 They are not so useful when once the fire has spread.
Under this category comes the portable extinguishing
of carbon dioxide type or foam generation type etc..
 The discharge from a portable fire extinguisher lasts
only for a short duration of 20 to 120 seconds.
 In some cases, specially in small buildings buckets
water, sand and asbestos blanket may be kept ready at all
times to extinguish fire.
These buckets are installed at convenient locations for
taking care of fire of minor size. 25
FIRE HYDRANTS
 These fire hydrants are provided on a
ring main of 150 mm dia., in the ground
around the building periphery.

The ring main gets water from

underground tank with pressure so that
available pressure at each hydrants is of
the order of about 3.5 to 4 kg/m2

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 WET RISER SYSTEM
The system consists of
providing 100 to 150mm dia,
vertical G.I. pipes (risers) at
suitable locations in the
building.

A fire pump is used to feed

water from underground tank to
these pipes, to ensure a
pressure of 3 kg/cm2 at upper
most outlet

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 AUTOMATIC SPRINKLER SYSTEM
 This arrangement is adopted for important
structures like textile mills, paper mills etc.
 The system consists of a net work of pipes 20mm
dia, fixed to ceiling of the room.
 These pipes are spaced at 3m centre to centre, heat
actuated sprinkler heads are fixed to these pipes at
regular interval.
 The pipes get supply from a header.
 Each sprinkler head is provided with fusible plug.
 In the event of fire ,the fusible plug in the speaker
nearest to the wire melts due to rise of temperature,
and water gushes out of the sprinkler head.
 The fire is thus brought under control in a short
period. 28