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A fire experiment conducted in a British 1950s-style house is described. Measurements of temperature, smoke, CO, CO2 , and O2 were taken in the Lounge, stairwell, and front and back bedrooms. The front bedroom door was wedged open, while the door to the back bedroom was wedged closed. Contrary to expectations and despite the relatively small fire load, analysis and hazard calculations show permeation of toxic fire gases throughout the property with lethal concentrations of effluent being measured at each sampling point. A generally poor state of repair and missing carpets in the upper story contributed to a high degree of gas and smoke permeation. The available egress time was calculated as the time before the main escape route became impassable. Given known human responses to fire, such an incident could have caused fatalities to sleeping or otherwise immobile occupants.

This article discusses how a modified (variable heat flux) Cone Calorimeter can be used to approximately replicate heating regimes in standard furnace testing. The method is not exact as there are a number of physical differences between the two systems that are not accounted for, and the cone heater is unable to deliver sufficient heat flux to replicate aggressive furnace environments such as the hydrocarbon heating regime. Intumescent coatings testing is used (on an I-beam and a flat plate in the cone) to demonstrate the efficacy of the technique. The method as described relates to an internal furnace test (on an I-beam), but it is easily modifiable to other test scenarios such as a door test. Similarly, although the example discussed considers intumescent coatings testing, it is expected that a wide range of sample media could be tested in this way. That stated there are a range of limitations to this technique that need to be appreciated. Downloaded fromt ¼ Time (s) t failure ¼ Time when cone and furnace samples temperature diverge by 10% (min)¼ Section factor of I-beam (m À1 ) ¼ Thickness (m) " ¼ Emissivity ¼ Density (kgm À3

Abstract. Four sandwich panel rooms were constructed as prescribed in the ISO 13784-1 test. However, the construction followed normal industry practice, and the panels were also subjected to the kinds of damage typically found in commercial premises, although such damage may not typically be concentrated in such a small room. The fire load was increased to simulate fires actually occurring in commercial premises by stepping up the propane burner output from the usual maximum of 300-600 kW, and by placing a substantial wooden crib in two of the rooms. The results