Fuel load is the total quantity of the combustible contents of a space, building, or fire area. The combustible contents may include the interior trim and finish. Different structures may not provide the same fuel load to the fire. In a standard single-family home, the biggest fuel loads would be the furniture and this would differ greatly in a heavily furnished home and a sparsely furnished home. There would be a large fuel load in a densely furnished home and if much time is given before an intervention to extinguish the fire is take, there would be greater damage to the structure and give a myriad of fire patterns for analysis. In a sparsely furnished home, there is likely to be a less vigorous fire and the fire patterns. A McDonald’s would have a lesser fuel load because it has lesser combustible contents than a standard home. The reason for that is that McDonald’s has dining tables that are sparse which are mostly made up of incombustible material. However, the cooking fuels which are mostly gaseous fuels such as propane would cause a large explosion leading to huge damage to the interior of the building. Although there would be large damages to the interior due to the cooking fuels, the fuel load would be lesser than that of a standard single-family home because of the heavy furnishing that is likely to be there in such a building. Since almost everything within a McDonald’s is made of metal, they would be little in the way the fuel for the fire. In conclusion, the fuel load differs depending on the contents of a building or space with a heavy fuel load affecting a structure greatly. A standard single-family home has a larger fuel load than a McDonald’s would have because of the dense furniture that would be there in a standard single-family home.
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