Fire Loads In Commercial Premises

摘要

This paper presents the results of a survey conducted in the Canadian cities of Ottawa and Gatineau to characterize fire loads in commercial premises. The survey included various commercial establishments such as restaurants, travel agencies, and pharmacies, as well as, retail stores selling clothing, shoes, food, alcohol, computers, and computer supplies. Five different types of combustible material groups were selected as the base of analyses: textiles, plastics, wood/paper, food, and miscellaneous. The data collected were analyzed to determine the total fire load in each establishment, the fire load density, and the contribution of different combustible materials to the total fire load. A total of 168 commercial premises were surveyed with a total floor area of 17127m~2. The area of the surveyed stores ranged from 3.25 to 1707 m~2. The fire load densities of the 168 surveyed stores had a lognormal distribution with a mean value of 747MJ/m~2, a maximum value of 5305MJ/m~2, a minimum value of 56MJ/m~2, and a standard deviation of 833MJ/m~2. In most stores, the 95th percentile and the mean fire load density showed a tendency to decrease with an increase of floor area, which is consistent with those of earlier surveys.