In addition to the casualty statistics, NIST has identified that from 2005-2010 there were 89 “near miss” incidents related to live fire training incidents。7 In these 89 incidents, 37 firefighters were burned or had PPE damage。 

1。3 Previous Research on Training Fires at the Maryland Fire and Rescue Institute 

In 2005, MFRI and the Department of Fire Protection Engineering at the University of Maryland conducted physiology tests on fire fighters during training evolutions at the MFRI four story structural firefighting building in College Park, MD。8 These evolutions consisted of a fuel package being ignited inside the third floor burn room and fire fighters entering the structure to extinguish the fire。 

On two days of the testing, engineers from the Fire Research Division at NIST instrumented the burn room, placing a thermocouple array and heat flux gauge inside the room to monitor the thermal conditions inside the structure。 Seven evolutions were conducted during the two days of testing with the NIST engineers present。 

1。3。1 Facility Description 

The four story MFRI structural firefighting building is shown in Figure 1。 The walls are constructed of concrete block and the floors are made of concrete。 The footprint of the building is approximately 12。6 m  7。8 m and each floor is approximately 2。8 m in height。7 The floor plan of the third floor, where the tests took place, is presented in Figure 2。 The floor plan depicts the configuration of the rooms and locations of the four doors, five windows and six scuppers (scuppers are provided principally for water removal but also serve as a source of ventilation for the fire)。 The fuel package ignited during the tests was located in the burn room。 The floor area of each room on the third floor is noted in Table 3。 

The walls and ceilings are protected with three types of fire resistive materials。 The first is a sprayed-on fire resistive material known as Pre-Krete G-8。 Pre-Krete G-8 is composed of hydraulic calcium aluminate cement。 The Pre-Krete G-8 is applied to the walls of the burn room and Room 2, as shown in Figure 3。 The second type of fire resistive material used in the burn structure is 51 mm thick, high-temperature tiles composed of refractory concrete placed on top of a 25 mm thick insulation known as SuperTemp_L。 The high temperature tile – insulation combination is attached to the ceiling of the third floor, along with the walls in Rooms 1, 2 and 3, as shown in Figure 4。 The third type of fire resistive material is Duraliner HT insulating panels。 These are attached to some of the walls in Room 1 as shown in Figure 5。

1。3。2 Instrumentation 

Instrumentation in the burn room consisted of an array of thermocouples and two heat flux gauges。 Both devices were located in the corner of the burn room, directly across from the fire。 The eight thermocouples on the thermocouple array were located at the following heights above the floor: 2。2 m (7。2 ft), 1。9 m (6。2 ft), 1。6 m (5。3 ft), 1。3 m (4。3 ft), 1。0 m (3。3 ft), 0。7 m (2。3 ft), 0。4 m (1。3 ft), and 0。1 m (0。3 ft)。 The heat flux gauges were facing the fire and located at heights of 1 m (3。3 ft) and 2 m (6。6 ft) above the floor。7 

1。3。3 Fuel Package 

The fuel package used during these tests consisted of a half bale of excelsior and three wood pallets arranged in a triangular configuration as shown in Figure 6。 The pallets were 1。22 m  1。02 m  0。13 m (4。00 ft  3。35 ft  0。43 ft)。 The moisture content was between (8 – 11 %)。 The three pallets combined weighed between 35 kg (77 lb) and 54 kg (119 lb)。 The excelsior weighed approximately 31 kg (68 lb)。8 

1。3。4 Ambient Conditions 

The ambient temperature inside the burn building was approximately 25 °C (77 °F) with a relative humidity of 66%。8