Fire Protection

According to the U.S. Fire Administration, fire departments in the United States respond to an average of 2 million fire calls each year. This fire problem, on a per capita basis, is one of the worst in the industrial world. There are few fire performance requirements for building products in single-family dwellings. As a result, homes are not always built with the most fire-resistant materials. Fire-resistant design acknowledges that certain materials, such as concrete, steel, or treated wood, can actually slow the rate at which a fire burns, allowing more time for a family to escape a burning house. There are other more obvious design features that could greatly reduce a fire's devastating effects on a home, such as fire alarms and sprinkler systems.

Publications

Fire in the United States 1989-1998
National Fire Data Center statistical overview of fires in the United States; designed to arm fire services with information that improves fire damage statistics.

The Guideline on Fire Ratings of Archaic Materials and Assemblies February 2000
Compilation of fire ratings from earlier sources for a wide variety of materials and assemblies found in buildings from the nineteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries.

Publications from the Forest Products Laboratory

Fire Testing of Recycled Materials for Building Applications
Discussion of fire test applicable to wide market acceptance of new building products made from recycled materials.

Publication List
List of publications related to fire-safe use of forest products.

Resources

*NEW* PATH Technologies that Benefit Fire Reconstruction Efforts in California
Technologies to increase the fire resistance of the home or development, reduce the time it will take to redevelop and rebuild, reduce the cost of rebuilding.

Fire Resistance of Concrete Homes
Portland Cement Association's technology brief on the fire resistance benefits of concrete homes.

Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)

U.S. Fire Administration
Entity of FEMA, USFA reduces life and economic losses due to fire and related emergencies.

NIST's Building and Fire Research Laboratory (BFRL)

Enhanced Fire Safety
Eliminates flashover risk cost-effectively and provides for safer and more effective fire service operations.

Fire Research Information Services (FRIS)
55,000-item document collection accessible through FIREDOC via the Internet; vast resource of information on nearly any fire research related subject.

Content updated on 6/20/2005