Preface to the second edition Since the publication of the First Edition of this

book, substantial progress has occurred in Structural Fire Safety Engineering w

hich has necessitated the production of a Second Edition. However, the author m
ust report the death of two personally influential figures noted in the acknowl
edgements to the first edition, namely Bill Malhotra and Tony Morris, and the r
etirement of the third, Bob Anchor. The intention behind this text remains prov
ision to those involved in aspects of the design of structures to withstand the
accidental effects due to fire occurring within part or the whole of the struc
ture and of the tools required to enable such a design to be carried out. One o
f the major revisions is that the author has concentrated on the European Desig
n Codes rather than British Standards which will in the course of the next fiv
e years become effectively obsolete. However, the designer should still be aware
that any design code is subject to revision or amendment and that it is essenti
al that the most recent edition be used, and that where this produces a discrepa
ncy between this text and the Code, the Code must be taken as the final arbiter.
The second major revision has been due to the impact of the largescale fire tes
ts carried out at Cardington. This has meant there has had to be a re-assessment
of the behaviour of composite steel concrete frame structures, in that the whole
structure performance markedly outweighs that of single elements. Equally, there
are a number of guides produced by either the Institution of Structural Enginee
rs or the Building Research Establishment promoting Structural Fire Safety Engin
eering. The best available texts were used for the EuroCode material as some of
the EuroCodes had not at the time when this text was prepared been finally appro
ved or released by CEN (Comit Europen de Normalisation) for publication by the app
ropriate National Standards Organization. It is thus possible that there might b
e discrepancies between this text and the final published EN versions of the Eur
oCodes. It is hoped such variations are slight and will mostly be concerned with
interpretive matters or notation and not basic principles.xiv Preface to the se
cond edition For the EuroCodes no account has been taken directly of National An
nexes, i.e. any nationally determined parameters are taken at recommended values
and not amended to conform to a particular country s National Annexe. The user of
this text is presumed to have knowledge of structural mechanics and a backgroun
d in the methods of structural design at ambient conditions since the design of
structures at the fire limit state either uses modified ambient design methods o
r requires data such as member capacities from the ambient design. Some knowled
ge of the thermodynamics of heat transfer will also be useful. A series of work
ed examples has been included to provide a feel for the type of calculations po
ssible. To assist in gaining a better understanding of the principles and proced
ures involved in fire safety engineering an extensive reference section is found
at the rear of the text. It has to be recognized that fire design must be envis
aged as part of the overall design of the structure and not an item to be consid
ered at the very end. To help the designer to obtain a full picture of the full
design decisions required, the first chapter provides an overview of the complet
e field. Certain acronyms appear with a high degree of regularity in the text. I
t was felt that these needed clarification, and that the preface was the most ap
propriate place: ASCE American Society of Civil Engineers ASFP Association for S
pecialist Fire Protection BRE Building Research Establishment Garston, England)
CEB Comit Euro-International du Bton CIB Conseil Internationale du Btiment pour la
Recherche l tude et la Documentation (International Council for Building Research S
tudies and Documentation) CIRIA Construction Industry Research and Information A
ssociation (London) ECCS European Convention for Construction Steelwork FIP Fdrati
on Internationale de la rcontrainte ISE Institution of Structural Engineers (Lond
on) ISO Organisation Internationale de ormalisation (International Organization
for Standardization) RILEM Runion Internationale des Laboratoires d Essais et de Re
cherches sur les Matriaux et les Constructions (International Union of Testing an
d Research Laboratories for Materials and Structures) SCI Steel Construction Ins
titutePreface to the second edition xv Note on Temperature Units The conventiona
l unit for emperature, namely the degree Celsius, has been used rather than the
absolute measure (the degree elvin). This generally causes no problem except in
heat transfer calculations when for the radiation component the degree Kelvin mu

st be used. Also there are some empirical formulae which require she use of the
degree Kelvin. Acknowledgements The author would like to thank H.L. (Bill) Malho
tra, .A. Morris and R.D. Anchor for their valuable support and advice over many
years. Thanks are also extended to Colin Bailey, Tom Lennon and Gerald Newman fo
r their advice and encouragement. The author would like to thank his colleague L
-Y Li for writing Chapter 6. Gratitude is also expressed to his Post-doctoral Re
search Fellow, Rosen Tenchev, and various Postgraduate Research Students, Sarah
uise, Bahjat Khalafallah, Raymond Connolly, Kamal Mustapha, Abderahim Bali and N
ick Weeks who have assisted, often unwittingly, by discovering references, provi
ding ideas and stimuli or by ommenting on early versions of the text of the firs
t edition. His thanks are also expressed to Dr J.W. Dougill without whom this bo
ok would not have been possible, as many years ago John was responsible for kind
ling the flames as a research supervisor. Thanks are also due to many individual
s, too many to name individually, working in the field who have given their time
and experience to deal with queries and questions. The usual disclaimer must be
made that in the final event any opinions expressed herein are entirely those o
f the author and that he alone is responsible for sins of either omission or com
mission. The author also wishes to thank the following for graciously granting p
ermission for material to be incorporated in this text American Concrete Instit
ute (Figs 5.15, 5.16, 24 and 13.5) American Society of Civil Engineers (Figs 5.
23 and 5.34) The American Society of testing and Materials (Figs 5.9 and 5.10)
British Standards Institution1 Fire safety engineering Before setting the groun
dwork for the complete subject of fire safety engineering and its influence on t
he overall planning, design and construction of building structures, it is neces
sary to attempt to define what is meant by fire safety engineering . There is, as y
et, no absolute definition, although the following may be found acceptable: Fire
safety engineering can be defined as the application of scientific and engineer
ing principles to the effects of fire in order to reduce the loss of life and da
mage to property by quantifying the risks and hazards involved and provide an op
timal solution to the application of preventive or protective measures. The conc
epts of fire safety engineering may be applied to any situation where fire is a
potential hazard. Although this text is mainly concerned with building structure
s, similar principles are equally applicable to the problems associated with oil
or gas installations or other structures such as highway bridges. The additiona
l hazards from gas and oil installations are primarily caused by the far more ra
pid growth of fire and the associated faster rates of temperature rise. This has
been recognized by considering the testing of material response under heating rg
imes other than those associated with the more conventional cellulosic fires. Th
e design methods used are, however, similar to those for the situation covered b
y the more normal cellulosic-based fires. With any non-building structure, there
can be a risk of fire damage, but the fact that this risk is extraordinarily lo
w means that such a contingency can normally be ignored. However, in the case of
, say, highway bridges where a tanker carrying a highly combustible cargo such a
s petrol collides with part of the supporting structure, the resultant damage fr
om the fire can be large, often necessitating replacement of the original struct
ure (Anon, 1990; Robbins, 1991). The largest area of risk from fire damage is lo
w-rise domestic housing which generally does not require sophisticated design me
thods as it is not a structural collapse which tends to be the problem, but the
spread of smoke and toxic gases, and the resultant inability of the occupants to
escape (Malhotra, 1987).
2 Fire Safety Engineering Design of Structures Certainly within the UK for a lon
g period, with the possible exception of the period 1939 1945 (during the Second W
orld War), there have been very few, if any, recorded cases of death of the occu
pants in a fire caused directly by the collapse of the structure. There have bee
n unfortunate cases, however, of the fire fighters being trapped by a collapse o
f the structure, well after the completion of occupant evacuation. This relative
ly low incidence of deaths resulting from collapse does not imply that structura
l integrity (load-bearing response) is unimportant, but is rather a testimony to
the soundness of structural design, detailing and construction over that period
. It has already been noted that the general cause of deaths is asphyxiation, i.

e. being overcome by smoke and gases, or by being trapped and then being unable
to escape and then being exposed to the effects of heat. It is therefore extreme
ly important to consider all the issues which can play a part in ensuring life s
afety in a fire affected structure. 1.1 DESIGN CONCERNS Elements within the disc
ipline of fire safety engineering can be readily identified which relate both to
life and property safety. These areas are not mutually exclusive as an action w
hich increases life safety may also increase property safety. The key areas can
be identified as follows: 1. Control of ignition This can be done by controlling
the flammability of materials within the structure, by maintenance of the struc
ture fabric and finishes, or by fire safety management in, say, imposing a ban o
n smoking or naked flames. 2. Control of means of escape This can be forced eith
er by the imposition of statutory requirements on provision of suitable escape f
acilities or by the education of occupants. 3. Detection This covers the install
ation of methods whereby the fire may be detected, preferably at the earliest po
ssible stage. 4. Control of the spread of fire Here, concern is the spread of th
e fire, either within the building or to adjacent properties. This control may e
ither be effected by in-built features (such as compartmentation) or control of
distance between buildings or by mechanical means (such as venting, smoke screen
s or sprinklers). 5. Prevention of structure collapse This covers the imposition
of load-bearing capacity and integrity on the structure as a whole or in part d
uring a fire. Each of these can now be considered in greater depth.Fire safety e
ngineering 3 1.1.1 Control of ignition This needs considering under three subhea
dings; the first two are concerned with spread of flame and the third with manag
ement and maintenance of the structure. Ignition can occur through a variety of
mechanisms. Generally, these are accidental, e.g. lighted cigarette ends, electr
ical faults or overheating of mechanical or electrical plant. However, deliberat
e actions or arson cannot be discounted. 1.1.1.1 Control of flammability There h
ave been too many cases where fire has spread rapidly owing to the unsuitable na
ture of the linings of a structure, thus any material used in the finishes on an
y part of the structure should be such that the spread of flame or flammability
must be limited. This in general is controlled by the imposition of tests on fla
mmability or flame spread by any relevant national or international standards, e
.g. in the UK the relevant sections of the Fire Test Standard (BS 476: Parts 3,
6 and 7 or their equivalent European standards). It is also essential to ensure
that materials used in the contents of the structure should reduce any hazard. I
t is clearly impractical to insist that the contents of any structure make no co
ntribution to the combustible fire load in a structure, but it is necessary to e
nsure that those contents produce as least a hazard as possible. This means that
the surface coatings should not be easily ignitable, nor, as happened in recent
cases in the UK with domestic fires involving foam-filled furniture, should cer
tain foams which produce large quantities of highly toxic smoke on ignition be a
llowed. This latter has led to the use of such foams being controlled by legisla
tion. 1.1.1.2 Control of growth of fire One classic means of controlling fire sp
read is by the use of vertical or horizontal fire compartments. However, these c
ompartments are only satisfactory if there is no possible route for smoke or fla
me through the compartment boundary. Fire spread can also occur within a room or
to a compartment beyond its point of origin if the original fire boundary is in
capable of containing it due to unsatisfactory closures to the room of origin (H
opkinson, 1984). A more recent case of fire spread, attributed to lack of fire s
topping following replacement of the original faade, was the Torre Windsor Tower
in Madrid Dowling, 2005; Redfern, 2005; Pope, 2006). There were additional probl
ems in this case, namely what appeared to be longer than normal for the fire bri
gade to actually start fighting the fire, and steel columns above the 17th floor
was not fire protected (Arup, 2005).4 Fire Safety Engineering Design of Structu
res An additional problem may arise where, although the compartment boundary is
satisfactory when the civil (or structural) part of the construction sequence is
complete, the installation of services may either destroy this fire break or no
t replace the fire break to a satisfactory standard. This situation can also ari
se when subsequent modifications are made, forced either by changes to the use o
f the structure or by repairs to, or replacements of, existing services. A furth

er problem can occur due to failure to clear away accumulations of combustible r

ubbish which can either be ignited by fire as at Bradford (Anon, 1985, 1986) or
can gradually cause flashover by very slow fire growth, i.e. smouldering (Anon,
1987, 1988). Such problems can be reduced by ensuring that a fully effective fir
e safety management policy is in place. 1.1.1.3 Fire safety management In single
occupancies, it is relatively easy to set up procedures to ensure that, in the
event of a fire, all personnel are aware of the proper procedures and that there
are suitable people to act as marshals and direct the fire brigade as required.
In multiple occupancies, especially where the occupancy changes frequently and
there is a large transient population, such as shopping malls, this is more diff
icult and it is therefore essential that the owners, often corporate bodies, set
up a fire safety management strategy and ensure that there is a responsible gro
up of persons on duty at all times to take full control in the case of an outbre
ak of fire. Note that this function can be taken by the staff employed for norma
l day-to-day security provided, they are fully and properly trained. It is also
essential that full records of the fire detection, fire control and fire-fightin
g systems are kept and that a full check is made on any occupancy to ensure that
no action is allowed to be taken which will negate any part of those systems. I
t is essential that where a fire engineering approach to building design is appr
oved and adopted, the measures contained in that design are retained at all time
s and that financial exigencies are not allowed to compromise fire safety. 1.1.2
Means of escape There are generally statutory requirements for the provision of
escape routing in all except the simplest single-storey structures. Such requir
ements are based on the concept of the maximum length of escape route to a safe
place, be it an external fire door or a protected fire-escape stairwell. The max
imum lengths are based on the type of occupancy and are also dependant on the me
thod of escape, i.e. whether along a corridor or Fire safety engineering 5 throu
gh the fire compartment. For multi-storey structures, it may well be possible to
make use of the concept of phased evacuation where initially only a reduced num
ber of storey adjacent to the fire affected zone are cleared, with other floors
being cleared subsequently if needed. There will also be requirements on the tot
al number of fire-escapes and the dimensions of escape routes which are normally
functions of the building type, the number of people expected within the buildi
ng at any one time and the potential mobility of such persons. The escape routes
are sized to give complete evacuation from the fire compartment into either a p
rotected area or the outside of the structure in some 2,5 min with a basic trave
l velocity on staircases of approximately 150 persons per minute per metre width
of escape route. It should however be recognized that staircases are built in d
iscrete widths and that doubling the staircase width will not double the through
put as an individual person requires finite space, and that minimum widths also
need to be specified. The above design figures are for able-bodied persons and n
eed modification when there is a likelihood of disabled persons being part of th
e building occupancy (Shields, 1993). The historical background to the reasons f
or imposing requirements on escape routes and evacuation is given in Read and Mo
rris (1993). This imposition followed a series of disastrous fires over a period
of some 50 years from 1881, when a theatre fire in Vienna was responsible for s
ome 450 people being killed, to a fire in Coventry in 1931. Much of the backgrou
nd to current legislation in the UK is given in a Ministry of Works Report (1952
) which was based on then current international practice. All escape routes must
also be lined with non-flammable, non-toxic materials. It should be noted that
the fire doors opening on to escape routes may have a lower fire resistance perf
ormance requirement than the structure itself as they are only required to be ef
fective in the very early stages of the fire where the major concern is with eva
cuation rather than structural stability. It has to be pointed out that fire doo
rs propped open, even by fire extinguishers, are totally ineffective! It is regr
ettable that there have been too many cases where, although the requisite number
of escape routes have been provided, the escape routes have not been kept clear
as the fire doors at the end of the escape routes were inoperative due to their
being locked and unable to be opened. Examples of this occurred at Summerland (
Anon, 1973) and the Dublin (Stardust) Disco fire (Anon, 1983). It is equally imp

ortant that the occupants of the structure are educated to respond to the warnin
gs of any fire. In domestic situations, where the occupants are in a familiar si
tuation, response may be faster than that in an unknown situation. There is stil
l a large amount to be learnt concerning human behaviour in a fire (Canter, 1985
; Proulx, 1994). Any warning 6 Fire Safety engineering Design of Structures syst
em must, to use a colloquial phrase, be user friendly . It has still not been deter
mined satisfactorily whether alarm bells or sirens should be implemented by broa
dcast instructions or graphical displays on the best manner of exit. It is, in a
ny case, essential that all escape routes are fully illuminated with self-contai
ned emergency lighting and all signs are also supplied by the emergency power su
pplies. The number of stories, some, one suspects, apocryphal, whereby people ha
ve totally ignored warnings to continue whatever they were doing before the alar
m are legion; for example, the restaurant user who insisted on continuing to eat
the meal that had been paid for in spite of the large quantities of smoke gradu
ally engulfing the individual concerned. Evidence suggests that individuals will
carry on as long as possible behaving as if the fire did not exist or there wer
e no warnings (Proulx, 1994). The educational process must also extend to the ow
ners and lessees of any structural complex. This process must form a part of any
fire safety management policy adopted. For buildings where the occupancy is con
trolled, part of the educational process can take the form of fire drill procedu
re. This, however, must be treated with caution as it is the author s experience t
hat more people who know when the drills are to take place, the more likely it i
s that the drill will be circumvented and its efficacy lost. The author has even
noted the individuals going in the opposite direction to the flow of evacuees t
o collect items from offices, and when questioned glibly respond with words to t
he effect that it is only a drill! 1.1.3 Detection and control of the fire In or
der to ensure life safety through evacuation, it is necessary to ensure that mea
ns are available for detection and control of the fire. Control of the fire is n
eeded both to reduce the production of smoke allowing more efficient evacuation
and to keep temperatures down in the structure to reduce subsequent damage.