Fire Safety Science Digital Archive

A survey of the movable fire load in dwellings has been conducted for apartment houses in the metropolitan area around Tokyo. Goods and furniture that are likely to be encountered were listed in advance with their figures, and the volume of goods that were stored in the containers was also asked. Collected data were converted to equivalent timber weight. The result suggests that the average movable fire load in a dwelling unit is about 34 kg/m , with a standard deviation of 11.7 kg/m. There seems to be a tendency for the total movable fire load to increase with the floor area; the total fire load is also likely to increase to some extent with the length of life in that dwelling unit; most heavily loaded spaces in total weight are bedrooms, with the average of about 400 kg; common storage spaces adjoining the corridor or the washroom are most heavily loaded per unit floor area, although they are usually narrow.