Fire loading, and also the rate of fire spread

[davajbell]

I am a health and safety student studying the NEBOSH Diploma and my latest assignment calls for me to estimate the fire loading in my workplace (a medium sized hotel with a conference centre attached). I also have to estimate the rate and method of fire growth. Are there any calculations available for this? My tutor does not seem to know where to start with this. Please forgive me if this is obvious to professionals, but it would seem to me that you guys are the people to ask. Thanks.

[Martin Burford]

FIRE LOADING.

fire load is a measure of the heat content of the combustible  materials present in an enclosed area. It is often defined as the heat  content of combustible materoald per unit floor area. the fire load can also br considered as the total heat content of the combustible materials in an enclosure.  The heat content per unit area is usually called  the "Fire Load Density "  the heat content of the combustible materials is expressed in yerms of the weight of the timber that would produce, by combustion, an amount of heat  equal to the heat content of the materials. The fire load density is expressed in kilograms per square metre of floor area.  although in practice, the fire load density is variable due to occupancy and usage of the building, the location within a building, and with time, and with statistical data it is possible to predict the fire load density for different occupanciies.  
I hope this helps.
Conqueror.

[davajbell]

Thanks for taking the time to reply. I will let you know how things go.
Cheers.

[wee brian]

There are references available that list the typical fire loading for certain items - desks chairs etc and others that list materials.

Speed of fire growth is smoething else again. You can have a very high fire load with a low fire growth rate or vice cersa. There are references that suggest different growth rates for typical occupancies.

For both you could start with BS 7974 but its a bit thin on data.

To be honest this is rarely used other than for quite specific fire engineering calculations and I can't imagine why you have been asked to do this for a nebosh cert.