Fire load density distribution in school buildings and statistical modelling

Reported in this paper is an exercise that contributes to the fire load database for fire severity analysis. The movable fuel load data was collected by the weight-inventory method from a specific building type, namely school buildings located within the metropolitan area of Sydney, Australia. The data was analysed to obtain statistical descriptions of fire load density in terms of probability density distributions. The results were compared with the similar data obtained from other countries. It was found that while basic statistical characteristics show similarities globally, some other characteristics, particularly the 90th percentile, may differ from one country to the other. This outcome suggests that fire load selection for design fires in fire safety engineering design and assessment should be better based on local data and a careful review of the unified approach in the international fire engineering guidelines is warranted.