Fire Safety Science Digital Archive

The statistics of fires attended by the fire brigades are examined to investigate the influence of certain structural features on the chance of a fire spreading beyond the room of origin. A statistical analysis shows that there is no significant variation from year to year (1963 and 1964) and that the chance of spread in buildings with timber framed walls is about twice as large as in those with other types of wall. The role of internal columns is not clear and those variations which have been found to be significant may be the result of other features associated with the type of column.