Estimation of Fire Loads for an Educational Building - A Case Study

Fire is one of the major hazards which may occur due to natural or man-made causes. In general, fires may be classified into five categories depending on the fuel that is burning. In recent times, there is an increase in incidences of fires in urban population due to very densely populated areas. The losses associated due to fires can be classified as loss to the life of structure, loss of human life and loss to property. It was observed that many options are available which help in early detection of fire and minimizing the losses. Smoke detectors and fire fighting equipments were studied for a public building i.e. an educational institution. Analysis of fire loads of different compartments and providing sufficient number of fire fighting equipments can help in reducing the severity of fires. The fire loads and fire densities were analyzed at some locations to determine the requirements of fire fighting equipments. The paper includes study of various types of fire detection, alarm and fire fighting systems and systematic analysis of fire loads and densities for an educational building