Fire-Load

The amount of heat liberated in combustion of any content or part of the building of a floor area is referred to as fire-load. It is represented in kilojoules per square metre (kJ/m²).

The fire-load is the ratio of the weight of all combustible materials (by their respective calorific values) to the floor area under consideration. For example, let a floor area of 120 m² contain 18 × 10³ N of combustible material having calorific value of 1.5 × 10³ J/N, then the

The fire-load is used as a measure of grading of occupancies by BIS (BIS 1641–1968). Accordingly the classifications are as follows:

1. Low fire-load
2. Moderate fire-load
3. High fire-load

Table 29.1 shows the classification of occupancies.

Table 29.1 Grading of occupancies by fire-load