Fire Safety Science Digital Archive

The design of escape routes from enclosed pedestrian shopping malls in large town centre developments would be facilitated by a knowledge of the likely rate of spread of smoke should a fire occur. This note discusses the spread of smoke along a mall in the light of a tentative theory (given in detail elsewhere). Assuming the theory to be correct a fire 2 m x 2 m base area would smoke-log a mall 6 m wide and 3 m high for 70 m in both directions in about 2 1/2 minutes. A fire "flashing over" in a small shop could smoke-log the mall for 200 m in both directions in the same time. Further work to verify the theory will be carried out.